Paradiso Perduto
by llevenne
Summary: AU/AH - Secrets, lies, deception and blackmail - all make for a lethal game in the lives of the city's elite. Features corporate/business-savvy-Klaroline, con-artist Kol, esquire Bonnie, model-Katherine, hotshot lawyer-Elijah, celebrity couple-Delena, socialite Rebekah & more
1. Description

**Summary:**

**AU/AH TVD Fanfic - The Mystic Falls gang as city-life elite. Multi-character fic that features corporate/business-savvy-Klaroline, celebrity couple-Delena, socialite Rebekah, model-Katherine, high-profile lawyer-Elijah, con-artist Kol, esquire Bonnie, also Kennett, Kalijah, Stefan/?, and more…I was inspired by HeyBecca's GH fanfic _Entropy_, which I read a few years back. If you're a vintage GH fan, you should definitely check it out... Chapter one is now up in the next page.**

**You can also find it on my tumblr - lastwaltz1**


	2. Chapter 1

Stefan walked through the streets, taking in everything about the big city as though seeing it again for the first time. The skyscrapers, the bundles of people, music flowing from various open windows, car horns-

"Watch where you're going pretty boy!" A man shouted above his car window as his brakes screeched and his vehicle came to a halt, mere centimeters away from Stefan.

And, of course, what he loved the most - how you couldn't even pass the street without almost facing death. Stefan smiled at the angry driver and gave a quick bow before shuffling inside the new club. It was the latest in Caroline's roster. After opening up places in Miami, L.A., Baltimore, Austin, New Orleans, it was no surprise that her business endeavors would eventually play out in NYC as well. He passed through the bar which was still undergoing last minute retouches. Workers and staff were moving about, getting things ready for Paradiso Perduto's grand opening. Going up towards the dining hall, he spotted Caroline's assistant talking to a reporter for Vanity Fair, dropping in some select names of people who would be attending opening night. The man pointed upstairs when he noticed his boss' friend and Stefan took that as his cue to go on up. Walking up the long staircase, he noticed various photos hung on the walls - mostly old photo ops of Elena, Caroline, Bonnie and Katherine back in their early modeling days. Her office had two glass walls, one so that she could see the club below and the other that had a view into the city and nearby businesses. Caroline sat up from her seat, the smile growing larger on her face when she saw her guest.

It often surprised him how Caroline was the first to break out of the mold and go into business for herself. He had always assumed she loved the attention and the limelight like Katherine and maybe she had once, but looking at her now, with her tailored blazer and tight pencil skirt, so confident and happy, he could see that that kind of life just wasn't enough for her - she had elected to grow up and evolve into something, someone better.

"Hey there, stranger," she said, greeting Stefan with a hug.

"Hey yourself." Stefan returned her smile.

"It's been what - almost a year since I've seen you? It's about time you came to visit."

"Have I ever missed opening night to any of your places?"

"Of course not. I would never let you."

With her latest nightclub just days from opening, it Stefan knew he'd find Caroline in full party-planning mode. Still, she was grateful to take a break with her old friend.

"Tell me you're bringing a date," she demanded.

"I'm not."

"You are."

"No."

"Yes."

Stefan sighed. "Ok. Maybe I'll ask Lexi to come-"

"So you can go as friends?"

"Yeah."

"Do you realize what a pathetic circle I'm stuck with?" Caroline scoffed, clearly upset. "Everyone's going as 'friends.' Damon and Elena have pressed the off-again button on their relationship once again and are putting on a front as friends for the press. Bonnie and Matt are also coming just as friends. Alaric and Jenna - friends. Katherine and I are both going stag. And Rebekah will probably drag one of her annoying brothers along as her date - or worse, bring the whole lot of them."

"Doesn't do well for the chances of anyone from our old hometown getting laid that night."

"Precisely." She nodded once with a frown. "You have to bring a real date."

"No."

"But-"

"No."

"But-"

"Drop it, Caroline. Please."

"Fine." Caroline huffed. "I can't imagine what's gotten you so broody so early in the week." She handed him his drink. There was that familiar twinkle of amusement in her eyes that he had missed over the past few months. "Have you lost your favourite can of hair mouse again? Or is it worse - are there no damsels in distresses for you to save on your big white horse?"

"Don't discount yourself from that list," Stefan chuckled when she stuck her tongue out at him.

"So what is it?" She asked, lifting her eyebrows. "And keep in mind, if you're planning on wailing over your brother's girlfriend again, I will call security."

"No. Believe me, I'm far past that."

"I'm sure."

"I am."

"I'm glad to hear it."

"Caroline, I mean it."

"Good."

"They're over anyway. Just friends now, as you've said."

"They're never over. You know that."

"I know. And I'm OK with it."

"That's nice."

Stefan fought the urge to throw his hands in the air and settled for shaking his head. He took a long swig of his drink before setting it down.

"Moving on now." Caroline said, walking towards the window and looking out at the city. She couldn't wait for the sun to go down so the place could be lit up under a blanket of stars. "What's brought you here apart from my fine company?"

"I'm bored."

"And?"

"That's it I'm bored," he said, stuffing his hands in the pocekts of his leather jacket. "I'm going through a fit of boredom."

Caroline rolled her eyes and observed a manicured nail. "Am I supposed to have the cure for that tucked away in my handbag?"

"I'm serious, Caroline. I'm bored. I've got nothing to do with my time anymore, except for taking care of my father's estate and that's just added to my boredom. I want something to call my own," he said, looking at her for a few moments. "I want you to help me come up with something, a new business venture - anything, it'll be your call, so long as it's something I can see myself doing - so that rules out anything with glitter and sparkles."

"Don't be so quick to diss a little bit of glitter - it can get you farther than you expect and anything that sparkles makes for a really great distraction." Caroline wanted to prattle on some more, but stopped at the exasperated sigh coming from Stefan's lips. "Ok, serious-mode. You're saying you want to pay me to start something for you?"

"Why not? You opened up a bunch of glorified bars and nightclubs for Klaus."

Caroline laughed mockingly. "I didn't do it for Klaus. I opened them up for myself and allowed him to back me up as an investor. A decision that to this day remains a temporary lapse in sanity."

"You still did it. Successfully. Why can't you help me do the same?"

"Do you even hear yourself? Investing in something is very different from starting from scratch and running things on your own."

"I'm aware of that."

"Are you?"

"Yes!" This time, he really did throw his hands in the air, a gesture that threw off Caroline. Stefan wasn't one for dramatics - that was always her style and quite frankly, she didn't like him usurping it. "You have no idea how things have been for me this past year. I've lost touch with my brother, my friends. I've only been on a few dates...Do you know that I actually watched the entire Harry Potter series. That's right I watched it and then I re-watched it. Yes, that is how bored I have been."

Caroline blinked, before stating in the most serious tone. "Harry Potter is not boring."

A knock on the door interrupted their little stalemate. Caroline's assistant came in, looking up from his tablet between the two. "Ms. Forbes, Mr. Mikaelson's here to see you."

"He's early," Caroline said, her tone laced with irritation. "As always."

"Should I tell him to wait?"

"As if he'll listen. That oaf's programmed his brain to only hear his own voice and mute the entire world."

"We should go over the guest list again when you have a moment." Her assistant returned his eyes to his device and awaited further instruction from his boss.

"Ok, but later. And go ahead and send him in."

Her aide left, leaving the two friends back where they started.

"Just think about it will you?" Stefan asked.

Caroline watched her friend - the irritated ticking of his jaw, his frustrated face. "Ok, I'll think about it. But I want you to think about it some more as well. Starting a new business, any business is a huge commitment."

"I know that."

"And I mean a real commitment. Not like the way you're committed to your tangerine-flavoured hair products or making moon eyes at Damon's-"

"I get it, thanks," Stefan said, a bit too bitterly.

"You might think you want to do this now, but what about a few years down the line? You might get bored again and selling off something is just as hard as starting it up. But if you are truly serious, you should also consider what potential investors you'll want to target. And this is where you should learn from my mistakes and not take on an investor who also holds the championship title for the world's biggest pain the ass."

"I assume you're talking about a certain somebody who's about to prance into your office at this very moment." He held a hand to his height. "About yey tall, British accent, daddy issues, narcissist, likes to wail on about himself."

"You assumed correctly." Caroline went over to the mirror on the wall and started primping her hair.

"I thought you two had become friends."

"That was a trial run. We decided we're not cut out for friendship."

"Still, you've come a long way as business associates. I remember how you hated each other once."

"No, we didn't hate each other," Caroline corrected again. "He rightfully worshiped me and I rightfully despised him."

Stefan gave out a little laugh. "Still rejecting his advances, huh? Are you ever going to give the guy a chance?"

Caroline caught her friends eyes in the mirror and he could have sworn he saw a trace of a smile tugging at her red lips. "Maybe one day, in a year...or a century."

"Why does your office reek of citrus and toxins? I could smell it two floors down." Klaus said, barging through the door without so much as a knock, eyes going straight to Caroline, looking her up and down, before noticing the other man's presence. "Ah, Stefan. That explains it. I see you're still over-moussing on an hourly basis. You really ought to go for one of those vegan brands Bekah uses - it'll leave less of an odour behind."

Stefan guffawed at the Wall Street Wolf. This coming from the man who smelled like irritation and wet puppy fur. "Great seeing you again too, Klaus."

"You can hardly expect much enthusiasm, mate," Klaus said, dropping onto the couch and stretching out his hands. "No calls, no letters in the mail. You always did have a talent for hurting my feelings."

He sounded so much like Rebekah that it made Stefan smile briefly. The moment passed quickly enough as Klaus' gaze went back to Caroline.

Stefan got the feeling that now was as good as time as any to make his exit. If he remembered correctly, these two could hash and bicker till kingdom come and not notice a single minute passing by. "Well, as much as I'd like to stay for...whatever this is. I should get going. It seems today is my day for reunions and I have a few others to meet up with. Think about my offer?" He asked, waiting for Caroline's nod. "Good, I'll give you a call later."

Stefan kissed Caroline's cheek and headed for the door.

"What about me, love?" Klaus waved a hand in air. "No farewell kiss?"

"Not today, Klaus," Stefan said dryly. "But don't worry, I'll get started on that love letter. It's been a long time coming."

"Think about what, baby?" Klaus asked Caroline once he heard the door close shut.

"Nothing. Don't worry your pretty little head over it." Caroline locked the door and walked over to him.

"My pretty little head is far from worried," he scoffed, his eyes never leaving her body as it got closer to him. "Just curious."

"Stop talking now. You always ruin everything when you talk."

"Well you certainly don't get anywhere in life by sitting down and shutting your-"

Caroline took off her blouse and Klaus stopped talking for the remainder of their meeting.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Stefan re-read the bistro's menu for the nineteenth time as he waited for the prodigal brother to return. Just as he was about to take out his phone and reprimand Damon, a strong arm came around him and ruffled his hair.

"You're late," Stefan said as he attempted to readjust his hair.

"No, you're just too early." Damon flopped down on the booth seat across from his sibling. "It's like school all over again. You always had to be early and you were left sitting all alone, waiting for the others to come into the classroom."

"You forgot to take off your sunglasses."

"I didn't forget," Damon said. Picking up a menu, he tried to read it through his dark shades.

"Did you read the Times article about Dad?" He leaned forward and removed his brother's specs, looking straight into his blue eyes.

Damon cut his eyes at him briefly. "Was I mentioned?"

"No."

"Then I didn't read it."

Stefan stayed quiet for a few moments, watching Damon pretend to read his menu. "He's retiring you know."

"And passing on the kingdom to his most beloved son."

"So you did read it?" When he got no response, Stefan continued. "He did think about you-"

"Stefan, I'm an act-or. An artiste. A face that belongs in the screen and on a billboard, the last thing I want is take over daddy dearest's drab little company. I don't care that he's giving it to you. I don't want any part of it, never have, never will. And if that's what this lunch is about then we can forget the whole thing."

"That's not what this is about. I just wanted to check in with you. I heard about you and Elena..."

Damon narrowed his eyes at his brother. "I'm not talking about Elena with someone who does cartwheels every-time she and I break up."

"I think you're confusing me for Caroline. I've never done a cartwheel in my life."

"Don't get me started on Barbie," Damon muttered. "Out of all of Elena's no-good, couture-craving, latte-sipping, mean-girl friends, that one has it out for me the most."

"You've given her plenty of reasons, I'm sure."

"And by Friday night, I'll have to put up with her giving me the stink-eye while trying to set up Elena with Mediterranean princes and other various himbos."

"Why are you going then?"

"I promised Elena." At Stefan's questioning look, he continued, "What, you're the reader right? Didn't you read the article in People? We had an 'amicable parting and have agreed to remain the closest of friends.'"

"Damon, I know you were going to propose to her." Looking away from Damon's glare, he answered the unspoken question. "Ric squealed."

Damon rolled his eyes. "I knew he was going through a career change but I didn't think measley gossip columnist for the Salvatore family newsletter was high on his list of potential jobs."

"Why did you end it?"

"Why do you care?"

"Because it's what I do. It's an illness without cure, I'm well aware," he said with a bit of a smile.

"O-M-G!" A high-pitched voice squealed from behind Damon. "It's really you. It's Damon Salvatore. I just love you!"

Damon's face morphed into his signature smug smile as he heard what he thought to be a fan. "Now, now. No need for that," he said, turning around. "I'm just a-" He stopped mid-sentence, his face immediately turned into a lethal scowl at the site of a mass of curls and a laughing Katherine Petrova. It always amazed him how the site of Elena's face made his heart jump out through his chest, but a mere glance at her identical twin made him want to find the nearest bridge and jump off in insanity.

"I can't believe you fell for that," Katherine said, in between giggles. "Again!"

Damon looked back at his brother to find him pressing his lips together, trying to hold back a laugh.

"Katherine," Damon hissed. "I can't believe they let you out of rehab. Again."

"Fancy seeing you here Stefan." Katherine ignored Damon and set her eyes firmly on his brother. "I hear you'll be at Blondie's new club opening."

"I'll be there with bells on," Stefan said with a kind smile towards the gorgeous brunette. Damon watched the two give each other the dirty-bedroom eyes and looked around him for an emergency barf bag.

"Bells huh? I can picture that," she said, giving him a flirtatious glance over. "Well, I have a photo shoot to get to. Call me later Stefan?"

"Sure Kat."

Katherine flashed him a wide grin before fluttering away, her hair bouncing as she headed towards the exit.

"There's another one that has it out for me," Damon said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Here's to the newest Esquire for Mikaelson, Mikaelson & Hastings," Elena said cheerfully, smushing her champagne-filled-plastic cup with Bonnie's as they stood in the middle of Bonnie's new office.

"Thank you," Bonnie said with a large smile. "And Caroline, I'll be sure to pour myself a libation in your honor." She spoke loud enough for her phone to pick up. Too busy to make it outside of her club, they decided to get the remaining third of their trio on speaker phone.

"Thanks Bonnie and congratulations. I'm so proud of you," Caroline's voice buzzed through Bonnie's device. "I'm really sorry I can't be there."

"No worries, Care."

"I have to say Bon-Bon," Elena said, refilling her drink. "You've come a long way from your model/law-student days."

"Says the famous MTA."

Elena Petrova's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "MTA?"

"Model-turned-actress," Bonnie laughed.

"You've been hanging around Katherine too much."

"With all the DUI's I've had to get her out of, I think I should've just become an entertainment lawyer."

"Incarcerated celebs do pay better. Not that money's any incentive to a Bennett heiress."

"This coming from the house of Petrova?"

"Touche." Elena raised her cup and emptied its contents into her mouth. "So what's your first case?"

"Nothing yet. Just some paperwork Elijah wants me to take care of for Mikaelson Industries."

"Which one is he again?"

"He's the middle Mikaelson in the letterhead, but he's also the big cheese around here," Bonnie said, finishing off her drink as well. "We were on the elevator with him, remember? Tailored Armani suit, perfect manners, not a hair out of place."

"Ah, the one who looked like he could kill someone with just one look," Elena nodded. "I caught him bending over to pick up a pen. Great ass."

"More like you pushed me aside to fish a pen out of my purse and dropped it on the ground so he could pick it up." Bonnie shook her head.

"As if you weren't looking either," Elena pointed out.

"His brother is one of Caroline's investors. But you're already acquainted with him."

"Ugh, don't get me started on that blood-sucking bastard." Elena suddenly felt the need for another drink. "I swear that one has it out for my whole family. Tried to bleed Petrova Inc dry once and almost left my family bankrupt. How can you even stand working with him, Caroline?"

Both brunettes look towards the phone when they heard nothing but silence.

"Forbes? You there?" Bonnie asked.

"Yes, yes. Of course," Caroline chirped quickly. "Sorry, I just have a lot of work to do before the big night."

"That's ok. We understand, Care," Elena said.

"We'll let you go now."

"Thanks. I'll see you guys Friday night?"

"You bet." Elena bumped Bonnie's shoulder as she sat on the desk next to her. "The three of us can all wear 'sans boyfriend' stamps on our foreheads."

"You two have dates," Caroline said.

"Dates who are not boyfriends," Elena reminded her.

"You know something? I think that calls for another drink," Bonnie announced as she grabbed the bottle of champagne. "For the first time in years, the three of us are all single at the same time. No more ditching girls-night-outs for boys. No more bitter ranting over how stupid men are. We can paint the town red, cruise for pretty city boys and leave them hanging as we so desire. It'll be like living the Sex & the City fantasy. Here's to the single life."

"Here here," Elena agreed, trying hard not to let her thoughts stray to Damon.

"Cheers." Caroline giggled nervously and ended the call. She looked up to see Klaus buckling up his pants. Oh, she was in such trouble.

"It's a good thing your staff can't see through that glass," he said, smirking at her as he pulled his suspenders up. He hated wearing things like this - monkey suits were Elijah's style, but Wall Street unfortunately came with a uniform.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that - they would've caught quite a show," she said grinning at him.

"A bit of an exhibitionist are we?" Klaus smiled wickedly.

Caroline clapped her hands, motioning him to come towards her and he obliged.

"You're going to have to tell them, baby," he said, stroking her face with his palm.

"I will."

"I heard those exact words months ago and yet here I am, spluttering around in-between your breaks like a dirty little secret."

"Secrets can be good," she said, grabbing his ass. "Secrets can tie two people together."

Just as she was about to lean up for a kiss, he moved his head back, his face suddenly very serious. "They can also tear them apart."

"Let's not get into this now," she said quietly, pulling at his waistband. Klaus took a hold of her hands, halting them.

"Caroline," he said in that tone that warned her that there was a volcano getting ready to erupt inside his head.

"I gave you my word I'll tell everyone." She looked up at him with wide, seemingly innocent eyes. "Have you ever known me to break my word?"

"As of yet? No." But he was always waiting for the other shoe to drop. For her to be like everyone else and turn her back on him, disappointment him.

"There you have it then. I'll let the whole planet know soon enough," she declared happily, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. Klaus noticed how this particular smile had a malevolent gleam to it. One that he had seen only a select few times on Caroline's lovely face. "And I think I'll start with that dear sister of yours."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kol Mikaelson pushed up the large door to his warehouse loft and entered the darkness. Instead of switching on some lights, he let the glare from his mobile phone guide him to his bed. Who knew the life of a con-artist would take up such long hours, he thought as he dived into the mattress. Ever since his family had frozen his accounts and all but threw him out, he was left with little choice but to become a working stiff, picking up one illegit job after another. That, on top of working out an elaborate plot to take down his family left him rather fatigued at the end of the day. He closed his eyes, on the brink of sleep, when his phone buzzed a familiar tone. He blinked a few times before reading the ID. He picked when he saw it was Hardison, a hacking-wizard he had become acquainted with a few years ago. Kol had actually caught him in act of identity theft - his sister's identity at that. Using Rebekah's name and credit info, Hardison had swindled his way into the top suite at the Waldorf Astoria. Rebekah wanted Kol to bash the man's kneecaps for it, but instead they became fast friends.

"How goes it mate?" Kol asked, pushing back a yawn.

"Got you on the list for Friday. Suit up." With that, Hardison hung up.

"Well, looks like I'm going to a party." Kol smirked.

_AN: Let me know what you think...I put in some references to Pretty Little Liars and Leverage. Did you catch them ;)? _


	3. Chapter 2

"Why can't I find the E! channel? You don't think they changed it, do you?" Katherine kept pressing a manicured nail down the channel button like a maniac as she searched through 500+ channels. She was seconds away from tossing the remote across the room. "I can't find E!"

"Kat, I know it's your source for World News, but perhaps you could try tuning into the actual news for a change," Caroline told her roommate as she looked through a collection of dresses sent to her to wear for opening night. Reem Acra, Burberry, Jonathan Saunders, Balmain, Herve Leger...oh decisions, decisions, she thought to herself.

The two had been sharing a Soho apartment for the past year, but rarely ever saw each other. Caroline was often at the club or at Klaus' penthouse and Katherine was either off on the runway or at a photo-shoot. It was rare to see them both in the apartment at the same time, but whenever they were together, they knew their margarita blender would get a good workout.

"There's supposed to be a blurb about me on E! News tonight," Katherine informed her. "Ah, here it is," she said triumphantly.

"Have you decided what you're going to wear tomorrow night?"

"I'm thinking that red hot little Emilio Pucci number."

"I'm not sure that's the best way to go," her roommate quipped. "The Miami club was more flash and color, this one's more clean cut and minimal. You might want to tone it down a notch."

"Nonsense," Katherine said, her eyes still glued to the TV screen. "That's all the more reason for me to wear something that pops."

"Right, as if you need to stand out any more than you already do," Caroline shook her head. She remembered Kat's crazy runway antics back from their past modeling days. From pushing another model right off the catwalk ("She was in my way," was her reasoning) to wearing nothing but couture-underwear and nine-inch heels, everything Katherine did drew attention. But somehow, it was never seemed to be enough.

"Unbelievable!" The brunette moaned morosely, muting the screen. "Not a word about me, but Princess Elena gets a whole segment about her."

"Don't be bitter, you'll get wrinkles." Caroline could feel her friend's glare piercing her back. "Besides, it's all promotional stuff for that new movie she's in."

"Oh don't give me that." Katherine fell back on Caroline's large bed and rolled around in it like a kid. "You know as well as I do it's all really about Damon and Elena calling things off again and who gets custody of their dogs this time."

"You know what'll happen don't you?" Katherine continued. "They'll get back together and it'll be all about her. Again."

Caroline caught the bitterness in her friend's tone. She understood what it was like to be in Elena's shadow. She was like that herself for many years. But it was easier for her to get past it and shine all on her own. Unlike Katherine, she wasn't tied to Elena by blood. Not to mention the press had always like to put the two against one another. Elena as the Gold Screen Sweetheart reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn and Katherine as the Hell-Raising Bad Girl who made Naomi Campbell look like a saint.

She had watched sibling dynamics play out over the years. She saw how the Petrova twins had gone at each other throats and how the Mikaelson siblings could barely stay in the same room without one of them attempting to kill another. And Caroline had come to one conclusion: she was utterly grateful to be an only child.

"Here," Caroline threw a familiar dress towards her friend. "Red hot Emilio Pucci right?" She smiled, hoping to get Katherine's mind off it.

"Thanks," Katherine said with a small smile before looking back at the screen. Assuming there would be more about the 'Delena breakup,' she was about to turn the TV off but froze when saw something entirely different. "Oh hell no!"

"What?" Caroline turned around. She gasped. Her jaw fell smack onto the floor at what she saw.

Katherine arched an eyebrow at her friend. "You've got some serious explaining to do!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Excuse me miss, I'm looking for an old friend of mine. Petite, beautiful brunette, she was my prom date back in high school. You wouldn't happen to have seen her, would you?" The man asked, approaching the woman at the cafe.

"Now why are you looking for the girl next door when you can have a hot young thing like me?" Bonnie grinned, getting up from her table to give Matt a hug. Even in five-inch killer heels, she had to lean up a bit to embrace him properly. Matt picked her up and did a quick twirl before setting his friend back down. A few customers who had recognized Matt were watching them curiously. Some had taken out their smartphones, trying to get a picture. "I'm glad you could make it to the city this week. We were worried you wouldn't come."

"And face Caroline's wrath?" Matt laughed. Ignoring the stares, he escorted Bonnie back to their table and pulled up her chair. "I'd rather not go down that road again."

"Well, it's great seeing you again."

"Yeah same here." Matt said with a smile. "Congrats on the new job by the way. I mean, Mikaelson, Mikaelson & Hastings," he whistled. "You've got to be an ace to get in with them - those people are sharks."

The waiter came by and took their order, all the while taking not-so-discreet looks at Matt. It was obvious he recognized Matt and was holding it in.

Once he left, Bonnie laughed at Matt. "I forgot how many fanboys you attract."

"Don't you start that up," Matt rolled his eyes. After playing college football, Matt was drafted by the New England Patriots. It wasn't long before he became their star quarterback.

"How much you want to bet it'll be half an hour before he comes back asking for your autograph?" Bonnie teased.

"Please," Matt scoffed. "If we're going to take bets on anything, it's who's going to be the first in our group to get smashed Friday night."

"Everyone knows that'll be a toss up between Katherine and Damon," Bonnie said, shaking her head. "No, no, the real gamble is which one of us will be getting lucky."

"You can definitely take me out of the running then."

"Yeah right Donovan. You'll never be able to convince me that the big time quarterback has trouble getting laid. You're probably having menage-a-trois with groupies on a daily basis."

"Not exactly," Matt chuckled, taking a sip of the coffee that had been set on their table. "That's really more Tyler's scene."

Bonnie held her latte cup between her hands, enjoying the warmth. "You think he'll come?"

"To his ex-wife's party? I'm pretty sure he'd sooner shoot himself in the head with a silver bullet," Matt said.

"He came to the last one."

"He crashed the last one."

Bonnie giggled a bit, remembering the TMZ footage of pro-football player Tyler Lockwood being thrown out of the Los Angeles club and onto the street by Caroline's bouncers."

"Besides, he's pretty busy training with the 49ers at the moment."

"You know, Rebekah will be there," she said, setting her cup down and folding her hands under chin.

"We're not getting back together, if that's what you're fishing for."

"I'm not fishing." Bonnie said, her tone all faux-innocence. "Besides you don't have to get back together to hook up," she finished with a wink.

"No, that ship's long gone I'm afraid."

"What happened? It seemed like you two were hot and heavy for a while. I remember she even got that Sports Illustrated cover because of you."

"I definitely didn't want her doing that." A year ago, it seemed like everyone around him was talking about NY socialite Rebekah Mikaelson's centerfold editorial. Matt groaned, annoyed as his mind recalled the cover, Rebekah's pose, what she wore or more importantly, what she didn't wear. "She mostly did that to piss of her brothers and get their attention. Sometimes I think the only reason she was ever with me was to stick it to them."

"Oh no," Bonnie grabbed his hand. "I've seen her with guys and usually, yeah she's only in it to annoy her family, but it was different with you."

"Maybe she did care," Matt said with a small frown. "But in the end, it wasn't enough. And I just couldn't handle her psycho brother."

"Klaus?" Bonnie's mind immediately thought of the CEO of Mikaelson Industries. She knew Elijah and Finn could both be ruthless, but at least they were relatively sane. The same could never be said about their infamous half-brother.

"No, the youngest one," Matt said, his tone full of distate as he thought of the man. "He nearly broke my hand off."

"I didn't know they had a younger brother," she said, thoughtfully. That was the Mikaelson's for you - just when you thought there were enough of them in the world, they multiplied. "Well Caroline said she's taking one of her brothers as her date tomorrow night. I hope for your sake it's not him."

"I doubt it. He had a falling out with the entire brood awhile back. I don't think they've kept in touch," Matt said. "Anyways, brothers are the ultimate cock-blockers. If she's taking one of them, then chances of Rebekah getting lucky are also very slim."

Bonnie laughed at the pleased look on Matt's face. "I guess my money's on Damon and Elena then."

"They broke up."

"And your point is?"

"Some things never change, huh?" Matt chuckled. "What about Caroline?"

"As far as I know, she isn't dating anyone. Katherine's her date to the opening," Bonnie said. "They're both going stag."

"Katherine might always go to a party stag, but she never leaves alone," Matt said. "My money's on her. Maybe she'll finally seduce the other Salvatore brother."

"Well, she's got the right face for it," Bonnie shrugged. While Bonnie wasn't as close to Katherine as she was to Elena, a part of her felt bad for the girl, knowing if she ever did hook her talons around the younger Salvatore, it would only be as a substitute for Elena.

"And you Miss Bennett?" Matt asked, raising his eyebrows. "Who do you have waiting in the wings?"

"Ugh, please," Bonnie groaned. "I'm in a worse rut than you."

"Well don't we make a fine pair." Matt raised his cup and clinked it with hers.

"We're love's bitches." Just then, Bonnie's mobile went off. She recognized Elena's ringtone and picked up. "Hey, I'm here with Mat-" Her lips froze mid-sentence as she heard Elena's news. "WHAT?"

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Niklaus Mikaelson had always believed he would live a very long life, well into old age. Of course, that was all before he met his wife. From the very first time he laid eyes on Caroline Forbes, he was sure she'd be the one to put him in an early grave.

He held his hands up and tried to approach her. "Now sweetheart-"

"Don't you dare try to sweetheart or love or baby me, Klaus!" Caroline screeched. Walking over to the open box of new decor items she had ordered for his penthouse, she pulled out another crystal figurine and threw it straight at her husband's head. "How could you?!"

Klaus ducked as it came right at his forehead and smashed into the wall behind him. The item met its demise as it fell into a hundred pieces just like the other glass nick-knacks she had thrown at him moments before. Over the years, he had grown accustomed to death threats and even assassination attempts from his competitors, enemies or just random people he ticked off. But nothing could have prepared him for Caroline's wrath. He stood up and noticed she was heading for the new China dinnerware patterns they had picked out together.

"No Caroline! Not the Royal Dolton!" He ran over and grabbed her arm just as she was about to smash a plate on his head. He pried the delicate China out of her fingers before carefully putting back into the box. "I really don't get why you're so upset, baby."

"You don't understand?!" Caroline gave out a cruel little laugh. "Seriously?"

Klaus narrowed his eyes. "You were going to tell people anyway, as you kept promising me."

"I was going to tell them on my terms!"

Klaus shook his head, a part of him wanting to laugh. Caroline would never understand how alike they truly were.

"You took that away from me," she spat. "How could you leak this to the press?"

"You're far too young to be hard of hearing, my dear," he replied snidely. "But since we're in that blissful newlywed stage of our marriage, I'll humour you and repeat myself. I did not leak anything to anybody. I don't know how the news of our nuptials got out, but it wasn't by my hand."

"Then who?!" She screamed, knowing she hadn't told a soul.

"I don't know!" He shouted back. "But what's done is done. So be a good girl and grin and bear it, will you?"

Caroline breathed in and out a few times to keep from exploding. She then calmly took out a dark red MAC lipstick from her purse and headed towards one of his precious artworks framed on the wall. Klaus' eyes widened, realizing what she was about to do. It wouldn't have been the first time she had written crude suggestions on an antique painting with a makeup tool as a method of revenge.

He sped over to her in an almost inhuman speed and pulled her away from the painting as he attempted to wrench her lipstick from her grasp. They fought it out for a bit until Klaus finally managed to toss the lethal beauty product away.

"That's enough Caroline," he growled.

"No, you know what? Screw you. I've had enough. Enough of you and your disregard for anyone's feelings but yourself," she hissed back. "Do you know what I've had to put up with all day since this got out? I got an earful from Katherine. Bonnie and Elena keep phone-stalking me, demanding answers. And I can't talk to them, because if I do, I know we'll fight and might not makeup in time for the opening. And to top it all off, I had to deal with my parents! My parents, Klaus!"

Klaus sighed and released her. "They'll get over it, love."

Caroline scoffed. Bill Forbes would have locked his daughter up and tortured her before allowing Caroline to run off and get married again. In fact, she was almost sure that's what he had wanted to do the first time around. She and Tyler Lockwood were fresh out of high school, 18 and in love and in a moment of spontaneity or stupidity, perhaps both, they had eloped. It didn't take long for that marriage to end up in divorce court, but Caroline had never heard the end of it. Since then, whenever she had started becoming serious with someone new, Bill had always reminded her of how silly she had been once upon a time and effectively frightened off most of her boyfriends - an act which she was sure he regretted now that he knew just who she had married. Whatever animosity he felt towards her other suitors was nothing compared to the hatred he had for the Mikaelsons.

Five years ago, around the time Klaus had started to take over Mikaelson Industries, a large investigation had been issued by the Securities & Exchange commission, with several big name-companies being prosecuted. Among them was Forbes Global. Apparently, the S&E had received knowledge about some of the companies' shady business practices through one of the Mikaelson's inside moles. There wasn't any legit  
proof that the Mikaelsons had leaked said info, but everyone knew the Mikaelsons, one Mikaelson in particular, played a large hand in it. It took Bill ages to get out from under the S&E's thumb and to this day, he knew Forbes Global was still on their radar. Since then, Caroline had had many arguments with her father about working with Klaus, making sure she knew what a fool she was for trusting the man. And maybe she was, but she couldn't help herself. She was a Yale graduate, the top of her class, with a sharp mind. But no one ever saw that. All they ever saw was a pretty face with a neurotic personality who liked to party on occasion. All except Klaus. He made her feel like she was something more, that there was something more out there for her. So when he promised to help back her financially with her very first nightclub, she took a chance on him. And since then, he had never let her down, at least not when it came to business. Their personal life together was a bit different.

"You really don't get it, do you?" Her blonde curls bounced as she shook her head and his eyes were drawn to the movement. "My family is not like your family."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? That I'm not good enough for you and your-"

"It means my family doesn't love me unconditionally the way yours loves you!" She shouted.

Klaus blinked at her, unsure how to respond.

"You manipulate, blackmail and screw around with your siblings on a daily basis. You're unapologetic and crude, and yet they always stand by you," Caroline explained. "They're always so quick to forgive you and you take that forgiveness for granted. But that's not how it is for everyone else. Some of us have to beg and plead for it and still get nothing in return."

"What happened with your parents, love?" He asked quietly after a few minutes of silence.

"They called me up. My mother said a few choice words about me being a disappointment and my dad made it clear he wanted nothing more to do with me." She let out a long sigh as she walked over to the sofa to grab her purse before turning away from him.

"Where are you going?"

"Back to the club, I have a lot of last-minute things to take care of."

"Someone else could do it."

"I don't want to fight anymore and if I stay here, I'm pretty sure that's all we'll do."

Klaus watched her walk out the door, leaving him all alone. What a familiar sight, he thought, looking around at nothing in particular.

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"I'm going to wring her neck!" Elena shouted, pacing back and forth in Bonnie's living room.

Bonnie rolled her eyes and continued to scroll through her BlackBerry. "She's our best friend. You'll only regret it and put yourself through a huge guilt-trip afterwards."

"You're right. I'll wring his neck instead." Elena's mind quickly processed an image of snapping Klaus Mikaelson's neck. Yes, there would be no guilt lying behind there. "What was she thinking?! With him? After everything that man's done to my family's name to her own family's name...I knew she was making a huge mistake since she started working with him." She stopped mid-rant and looked at Bonnie. "How are you so calm about this?"

Bonnie sighed and shut off her device. "Because it's not our business. I don't like this anymore than you do and I know she could've done a lot better, but Caroline's a big girl. She can make her own decisions."

"She's making a big mistake."

Bonnie tilted her head to the side and watched her friend. "You know she always says the same thing about you and Damon."

"That's another thing - how could she go off and marry him when she always went out of her way to ridicule Damon. I mean, she does a back flip whenever we break up."

"It's actually a cartwheel."

Elena threw her friend a glare.

"She has her reasons for hating him," Bonnie looked away.

"And I don't have a reason for hating Klaus?"

"Ok, here's the thing. She hates the love of your life, you hate hers. Why don't you just call it even and hug it out? I could take the matter to court for you, but I'm sure the verdict would remain the same."

"You aren't seriously comparing my long term relationship with Damon to her whirlwind marriage to Dracula."

"We don't know how long they've been together. Caroline hasn't been seen with anyone else for months. Plus, she and Klaus have been in eachother's lives for years. Who knows how long this has even been going on?"

"We would know if she would just answer her damn phone." Elena reached for her device and pressed a speed-dial button.

"I don't think she's going to pick up, so just drop it for now. We'll see her tomorrow night-"

"I'm not going."

"Yes you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Elena, stop it." Bonnie said, rubbing her forehead with her hands. She hated always having to be the middleman whenever Caroline and Elena went at it. "Remember when we were teenagers, how we made a promise that no matter how bad things got, we'd always have each other's back? Well, this is one of those times. It's a big night for her and she needs you there. And not for the publicity, she needs both of us there to calm her nerves and keep her mind from going overboard. And let's face it, we're the only two people on the planet who can do that."

It took awhile, but eventually Elena's frown shifted into a small smile. "Bros before hos right?" She said, repeating the words Caroline would always say whenever they started to argue over a guy.

Bonnie laughed and nodded. "Bros before hos."

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Klaus stood with his hands behind his back, inside the elevator of the Carlyle hotel. He wondered if he was making a mistake by coming to her without a bullet-proof vest on him.

When he got to his intended floor, he paused a bit by the elavtor doors. Taking a deep breath, he walked towards the room ahead of him and stopped at the door. However angry she was, he had a hunch she wouldn't have checked out already. His informants had confirmed as much when they told him where she was staying.

Before he could even knock on the door, it opened before him, leaving him staring at the familiar face of a blonde woman in her fifties.

"We need to talk," he said. One look from her and he knew he should have worn the vest.

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Tessa Bennett smiled gleefully as she packed up her laptop and headed out of the Daily News' office. Her name had graced several bylines this past year. Not to mention, it had been quite an incredible month for her, what with Guiesspe Salvatore's incoming retirement, Elena Petrova's breakup and now with the news of Wall Street bachelor Klaus Mikaelson getting hitched. Other media outlets had also come out with the news, but she had been the first to leak each of them onto both print and web. It shouldn't be long now before a promotion dropped on her lap, she thought to herself as she strolled out of the building. Her good mood was quickly shoved aside along with her person as a tall, dark-haired man shoved past her.

"Hey watch where you're going!" She shouted before storming off. "Ugh, troll."

Kol Mikaelson didn't bother listening to the bint screaming at him. His eyes were far too engrossed on an article he was reading on his phone. It was nothing he didn't already know, but to have it out there to the public as common knowledge would cause a huge dent in his plans. "Shit."

_AN - Let me know what you guys think. Should I continue?_


	4. Chapter 3, Part 1

**A/N - Happy New Year guys. Big thanks to everyone who left a review! So, a few of you mentioned being surprised about a married!Klaroline. Those two are my favorite ship on TVD and since the TVD/TO writers are screwing all of us Klaroline fans over, I thought I'd give the couple a touch of happiness that we're not likely to see on the shows (at least not anytime soon) - that isn't to say their relationship isn't without it's problems in this fic. Also, you will see Kalijah, but that will probably be in the next chapter. This chapter has Kol, Klaroline, Delena, Rebekah, Elijah, Bonnie, Matt, Stefan and ****Katherine.**

Bonnie groaned as her mind and body slowly drifted back into the land of the living. She stretched her neck around. She could feel the pain from a serious headache drilling a hole inside her brain. She hadn't had too much to drink the night before, yet she felt like she was battling a severe hangover. It was only when she was unable to move her limbs that she realized she was sitting down on a chair with her hands and legs tied down.

"What the hell?" She blinked her eyes a few times, trying to look around the poorly-lit room, which looked to be a large loft.

No windows, but there was a lot of space. She took everything in - a bed, a kitchenette, a table with a laptop and tablet, a flat screen-TV shoved into the corner of a wall and a large door that looked more like a garage entrance. The said door suddenly opened revealing the face of her kidnapper.

"Oh, I see you're finally awake. That's good, I was getting worried there," Kol said. "How are you feeling? I brought breakfast. Though I guess at this hour, it's more brunch." He held up two cups of coffee and a bag from Dean and Deluca. "I don't know how you like your coffee so I brought a little of everything - cream, milk, skim milk, regular sugar, brown sugar, the nasty fake-sugar that come in those little pink packets-"

"You!" Bonnie coughed out. "You're the-"

"Yes, yes, I know." Kol sighed as he placed the beverages and food on the kitchen counter and turned back to her. "I'm sorry it has to be this way. It's nothing personal, darling. I didn't intend to drag you into this - you're just collateral damage."

"Screw you, you asshole!" Bonnie shrieked, moving against her restraints.

Kol looked her over and produced a regretful little smile. "If only last night had turned out that way."

Bonnie shook her head in disgust. She couldn't believe this was happening. Then again, should she really be so surprised? Hadn't Matt always told her as much - that if there was one thing, she, Elena and Caroline all had in common it was that they had the absolute worst taste in men.

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***20 hours earlier***

Kol sat behind the wheel of the Audi and looked through the window, past the dimming street and into the lights coming from the windows of the familiar Soho complex, paying close attention to one set of lights in particular. He adjusted the slim Hugo Boss tie around his collar as he watched the blonde pace back and forth while on the phone.

His was a bit worried. His original plan might very well be going to pieces and he wasn't sure what to do about it.

Kol hadn't seen his family face-to-face in almost a year. He'd originally thought he could just go the opening of the blonde's nightclub and reintroduce himself to Klaus, Rebekah and Elijah, ruffle their feathers a bit with the knowledge that they couldn't get rid of him so easily. He had even considered a list of possible lines to throw at them. "Surprise bitches," he would say, "Bet you thought you'd seen the last of me." He would then say a few more choice words before slipping away, unseen like a ghost. Kol knew the trio would then convene somewhere else to talk about him, maybe they'd even call Finn up and drag him into it - Elijah was always insistent that everyone be present on those wretched family meetings. They would all be distracted, but most importantly Klaus would too be distracted, leaving Kol with the perfect opportunity to kidnap his new sister-in-law.

But now, with the news of their sudden marriage out there for everyone to know, the two had no need to keep their distance in public and Kol was worried the couple would be glued to the hip. What if he doesn't leave her side? Or, more likely, what if he doesn't allow her to leave his? Kol knew right then he had to hold back his desire to tell off his siblings tonight. If he presented himself tonight, Klaus would know that Kol knew about Caroline and he definitely wouldn't let her out of his sight.

He had watched Klaus carefully over the past few months and was surprised (and a bit sickened) to see that his half-brother had turned into a lovesick fool. Kol had met Caroline a few times over the years. He knew Klaus always had a thing for her, but Kol always assumed it was only because she was kept turning him down. She was a challenge that Klaus had wanted to conquer. Kol was so sure that when the time came, when she finally allowed Klaus to seduce her, his brother would be done with her. But one night in Paris shot that theory to hell.

Kol cackled a little to himself. Wasn't Nik the one that was always telling them that love beyond family was the greatest weakness? Kol shrugged. Oh well, it didn't matter anyway. He figured it worked i n his favor because now, for the first time, Klaus had a weakness. Whatever happened tonight, he knew he had to grab the girl. He was tired of living in a dingy warehouse, using stolen credit cards, working measly cons. He wanted his life back, he wanted his money back. And Caroline Mikaelson nee Forbes would have to help him out.

He looked back up at the woman in the distance. She was still on the damn phone. He really didn't get it - in the past, Nik didn't even like his dalliances to speak more than two words. All this one ever seemed to do was talk.

Maybe he should grab the blonde now. He might as well. There was no point in going to this event tonight if he couldn't stick it to his siblings. At least then he could get out of this damn suit.

Kol took out the tranquilizer gun in his glove compartment. He would have to first take out the two guards on Klaus' payroll. They were seated in a dark Hybrid down the road and were on-duty, looking out for the boss' girl. Times must be really tough, if even Klaus couldn't find better watchdogs. Kol smirked - he very much doubted Caroline knew her husband had guards watching her. Oh, the many things this innocent little lamb had yet to know about the wolf she married.

Just as he was getting ready to exit the car, he spotted the black limousine that had pulled up near the complex. A tall, blonde-haired man and a tiny brunette, both dressed to the nines, got out and headed towards the building. What the hell were they doing here? Kol groaned. He didn't mind offing Rebekah's old flame, but he didn't like the thought of putting the newest addition at his brother's law firm in the crossfire. Watching Caroline over the past few months meant also having to watch the stunning attorney-at-law. The two were always meeting up for lunch and coffee or taking a morning run through the park together. Once, during a jog, the pair had been caught in the rain. Needless to say, seeing a wet and sweaty Bonnie Bennett in nothing but skimpy running shorts and a sports bra was the highlight of his entire year. Kol sighed. He couldn't bring her into this.

Kol wished he had made more of a backup plan. At times like this he was reminded of what his father always told him - that he was too reckless, a wild card who didn't think things through enough. He wasn't as patient as Finn, not as intelligent as Elijah, he wasn't a master strategist like Klaus. He lacked the finesse his brothers had. But he couldn't help it - it was part of his nature. He had always gone wherever his heart (or many times, just his dick) had taken him to - consequences be damned - and this time his heart was set on revenge.

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Caroline opened the door to find her best friend leaning against the frame with her hands held behind her.

She took in Bonnie's appearance from her sparkly eye-shadow to her silver, strap-less Miu Miu dress to her six-inch Jimmy Choos. "It should be illegal for a lawyer to look that good."

Bonnie laughed and gave Caroline a once over. "I know pajama pants are trendy now, but if you wear them and make me have to look it the entire night, I'm going to sue you under the tort of negligent infliction of emotional distress."

"OK hotshot. I get it. I haven't changed yet." Caroline moved away from the door. "I'm still just not sure what to wear."

"Perhaps we can help." Bonnie walked into her friend's home, her hands still behind her back.

"We?" Caroline turned around to find Matt, all gussied up in a dark Gucci suit and tie. "Mattie!" She squealed, throwing her arms around him.

"Hey, we thought you could use a little pre-party drink," he said, holding up a bottle of Krug Clos d'Ambonnay. He shut the door behind him and the three headed towards Caroline's living room. Caroline and Katherine's loft was large with lots of big, rectangular windows because Caroline always liked to let some fresh light in and the brick walls had a few Wharolian-esque portraits of Katherine because she always liked to see pictures of herself when she was home.

"Or maybe just a last-minute get-together to toast your nuptials." Bonnie pulled her hands forward, revealing a small, finely-wrapped gift.

Caroline smiled softly at her friend, trying to keep the tears at bay. Unsure of what to say to her friends, she hadn't returned Bonnie or Elena's calls. She figured if they went to opening, there would be too many people around for them to corner her and demand answers. This was Bonnie's way of telling her she didn't owe them an explanation. "Oh Bonnie.." She pulled the brunette into her arms for a bear hug.

Bonnie hugged her back for awhile before letting go. She waved a hand in the air. "None of that now." She couldn't stand seeing her friends cry, because it only made her want to cry and soon enough they would just have one big sob feast. "Here, open it."

Like a child on her birthday, Caroline happily ripped out the ribbon. She and Klaus didn't have the traditional wedding with a church full of guests, which meant she didn't get to have all the presents that came with the guests as well. So this was her very first wedding gift. She opened the box and giggled. "This is adorable," she said, taking out the blonde bride and groom wedding cake toppers. "They make a perfect mini-Klaus and mini-Caroline." But upon further inspection of mini-Klaus, she had to ask. "Why does my groom have a red mark coming down his chin?"

"Oh, sorry, that was Elena's contribution," Bonnie muttered. She couldn't pry the red sharpie out Elena's fingers in time. "She said she wanted to make it look as accurate as possible."

Caroline shook her head and smiled, remembering Elena's nickname for her husband. "I swear I once saw him morph into a bat and fly away through a haze of smoke," Elena had said. Her smile quickly faded as she thought about her friend's reaction. "Is she coming tonight?"

"She'll be there," Bonnie assured her. "She just has to make sure Damon gets ready-"

"Ugh, why does she have to bring him? Especially now that they're not-"

Bonnie held up a hand to stop her. "No. You are not allowed to do that anymore and you know it."

Caroline sighed, knowing her friend was right. She and Elena would have to agree to disagree when it came to their love lives.

"So how about that drink?" Matt waved the bottle in front of him. "I'll get some glasses."

"Kitchen's over there, to your left," Caroline said.

"How are your parents taking it?" Bonnie asked as she browsed through the rack of designer clothing by one of the windows.

"My father's still shunning me and I don't think that's going to change anytime soon." Caroline fell back on an armchair and pulled  
one leg up. "But..."

"But?" Bonnie arched an eyebrow.

"My mother called again and I think she's willing to give me and Klaus a chance."

"Really? Well, if you can get Attorney General Forbes to come around, it won't be long till your dad finally does."

"I hope so. Klaus and I are brunching with her this Sunday - she said she'd try to get my dad to come along."

"How about this one?" Bonnie pulled out a sleek, white, backless Narciso Rodriguez dress.

"No that won't do." It would've gone great with the minimalist-look to her club, but it just wasn't the right one. "I want to look hot tonight. Like Princess Grace of Monaco hot." She sighed and looked back at the rack. "I wish Klaus were here to help me pick something."

Bonnie looked at her as though she were mad.

"What? I'm serious. He's actually got a good eye for this kind of stuff."

An image of Klaus as a professional stylist/fashionista suddenly appeared in her mind and Bonnie couldn't help but snicker.

"Alright, here we go," Matt came in with a tray of three champagne-filled glasses, handing one to each lady. "Cheers."

"Cheers," Bonnie and Caroline both said, clinking their glasses with Matt's.

"So," Matt took a sip and sat down on the sofa next to Bonnie. "How did it happen?"

"How did what happen?"

Both Matt and Bonnie turned their heads toward her at the same time and gave her the same 'come-on' expression.

"We were dating for a while and then we just kind of got carried away and the next thing I know - boom. Married."

"Were you drunk?" Matt drawled.

"What? No!"

The jock simply stared her down.

"Not the first time anyway," Caroline said, rolling her eyes.

"What do you mean by that?" Bonnie asked.

Caroline took a deep breath. "It just happened...one month ago. You know how I had been thinking about starting a nightclub in Paris, so of course I went there. And of course he went with me to look at some spots and well it's Paris - city of love and all that good stuff so we had an amazing time - we were having sex just about everywhere. Then I let it slip that I wanted to move and start a family there some day and then he laughed. But I took his laugh completely the wrong way and started to question whether as he was as committed to our relationship as I was. But then he brought up the fact that I was the one who wanted to keep our relationship a secret so if there was anyone holding back it was me. That quickly escalated into a colossal fight, which ended with us ignoring each other for an entire day before making up with the best make-up sex ever and then the next thing I know we're sealing the deal with a marriage contract, followed by more great sex. Then the morning after I couldn't believe what we had done and I wanted to take it all back, but I wasn't sure how to tell him - he can be really sensitive sometimes, like a wounded little puppy - so I thought I would just wait a little bit to tell him. So I waited and we had more sex. But then he remembered how I told him that I had never been to Rome, so of course he takes me there. We had a great time, but we both drank way too much and got 'snockered' - that's his word for it, not mine - and it just so happened that our bartender was also ordained, so in a drunken haze, we got married all over again, followed by mind-blowing honey-moon sex. After that Klaus had to go to Tokyo on business and asked me to come with and by that time I just figured, if he's not backing out of it, why should I? Why not give it a chance? So I went to Tokyo with him and we had more honey-moon sex."

Caroline finally breathed again.

Matt and Bonnie just sat there in silence. Every now and then one of them would blink.

After a tense silence, Bonnie cleared her throat and finished the rest of her drink. She set it down on the glass table in front of her and crossed her legs. "So, the sex is that good, huh?"

"The best." Caroline sighed blissfully. "The things that man can do with his-"

"Stop," Matt held up a hand.

"Oh, sorry. TMI right? You guys don't really want to hear about that."

"Yes we do."

"Bonnie!" Matt shrieked.

"Quiet Matthew. The most action I've gotten these past few months is watching my boss's sexy ass bend down to pick up a pen," Bonnie stated. "I want all the details."

Matt groaned. "I'm going to need another drink."

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"I can't believe I'm even going to this," Elena sighed, smoothing down the silky, dark purple Alexis Mabille gown as she looked into the long mirror. She was the picture of beauty and elegance, but she couldn't help but frown at her reflection. Just one day ago she was thrilled about the opening of Paradiso Perduto, yet now she hated the thought of having to step foot into the club.

"Then why are you?" Damon asked. "We could always just ditch it and order take-out."

Elena scowled as she watched him through the looking glass. This man would be the end of her. She just knew it. They had been together on and off for the past five years. But no matter how much they fought, they had always found their way back to one another in the end. Earlier this year, their relationship was great - better than it had ever been. They knew each other so well, had understood one another in ways no one else ever could. She had even begun to think he would even propose to her. Then, one day, she had come home to find him packing up his stuff and announcing that he was moving out and taking their two Yorkies with him. She had screamed and fought, but in the end, he had left her without so much as an explanation. Shutting her out entirely, they began to only communicate to one another through their PR agents, who sold the press a whimsy little story of them now being 'close friends' even though they hadn't said so much as two sentences to each other in the past month. And now, here he was, lying on her bed, clad in an all-black Calvin Klein suit, reading the latest issue of US Weekly, as though nothing between them had changed.

Elena put a hand to her forehead, rubbing her temple. She needed aspirin - extra strength. This man was giving her whiplash. Nevertheless, she wanted to have a night out with Damon, wanted to get closure on their relationship. Damon, surprisingly, was a bit of a lightweight. She was sure she could get him to open up and talk about their relationship after a few drinks.

"We have to go," she said, throwing a black diamond Chanel necklace around her throat. "I promised Caroline." That was the main issue. She had believed that her best friend had learned her lesson about marrying the wrong man once before. Elena had made the mistake of standing by and doing nothing when an 18-year-old Caroline eloped with Tyler Lockwood. She knew it would only end badly, but she was afraid that voicing her opinion would only push her best friend away. She wouldn't be making the same one twice. When she saw Caroline tonight, she was going to let her know exactly what she thought on the matter.

"Please, now that Barbie and Ken have finally hooked up, I doubt she'll even notice that we're not there." Damon snorted, flipping through the pages.

"What do you mean "finally" hooked up?" She flipped her head around to face him.

"What? They've only been making goo-goo eyes at each other for half a decade."

"You're talking about the same two people who nearly ripped each other's heads off because they were literally fighting over apples and oranges."

"When did they do that?" He asked, still not looking up at her.

"At your 3rd-30th birthday party."

"It wasn't mine, I wouldn't have invited him."

"It was yours. Stefan invited him."

"My brother always did have bad taste in men." Damon frowned. "What's it to you who Blondie hooks up with?"

"It's just-it's him. It'll never last. Caroline's a good person and he's-well he's a monster. He thinks he's a bigshot who's so high up, but the truth is he's got nowhere to go but down. He'll only ruin her and if I were her, I'd run away as fast as I could."

Damon froze at her words. They struck a chord with him and his entire body went stiff for a second before he simply turned the page and continued with his reading. But Elena had caught it - the way his jaw had tensed and he looked like something had gone off in his head.

"Would you stop reading that trash and put on your tie, please."

"It's not trash. It's a distinguished publication. They're sold in the finest supermarkets," Damon quipped.

Elena held back a groan and turned back to the mirror to fix up her hair in a intricate bun. This was going to be a long night.

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"Hey there, you gorgeous man you."

"Katherine," Stefan smiled politely, moving away from the door to let the beautiful brunnette into his hotel room at the Ritz-Carlton. "That's some dress you've got there." Wrapped in a short, blood-red sequin dress with matching lipstick and Manolo Blahniks, Katherine looked like she was out for blood.

"Is it too much?"

"Would you even care if it was?" Stefan laughed. "You look amazing. You're going to turn heads, as always."

"Thanks," Katherine smiled. She was no stranger to compliments about her beauty, but Stefan was the only one who sounded genuine  
when he gave them.

"I take it you're heading over to the club?"

"That I am." Katherine raked her brown eyes over Stefan in his Ralph Lauren suit. "No tie?"

"It felt like a noose around my neck so I thought I might go without. What do you think?"

"You know you can pull off anything, especially with that face," she said, grabbing his chin lightly.

"Thank you." Stefan smiled a little before turning away.

"So," she cleared her throat, pretending not to be offended at his distance, "Turns out my date ran off and got married. To a man of all things."

"The horror."

"I know right?" She tilted her head and gave him her best puppy dog eyes. "Care to escort me?"

"Sure," Stefan shrugged. "I'm picking up Lexi along the way, but we're just going as friends."

"So we can make it a threesome?" Katherine asked, all pseudo-innocence.

"Yes-no! I mean-" Stefan caught her smirk and chuckled. "Play nice, Katherine."

"Ok, I'll be good," she said, crossing her fingers behind her back. "I'll also probably need a ride back?" Katherine approached him like a huntress stalking her prey.

"No problem."

"And someone to walk me up to my place." She placed a hand on his chest, right by his heart.

"OK."

"And someone to come in and have a little nightcap with me."

Stefan sighed and gently took Katherine's hand away. "Katherine." He shook his head.

Frustration began to form on Katherine's face. "You know there was a time when you would've done anything to get into my bedroom. You even climbed up a tree and tried to get past the window - granted, you might've had a better chance if said window wasn't locked."

"We were kids, Kat," he whispered. "Things are different now."

"You're in love with Elena now."

"No, no that's not it. God, I wish people would just stop staying that." Stefan shook his head and stepped away from her. He rubbed his eyes with one hand before looking back at her. "I'm just not looking for anything...long-term at the moment."

"And you think I am?"

"Yes Katherine, I do. You can tell others differently - that you walk alone, that you don't need anyone else. But I know you - I know deep down you want to be in love and that you're in it for the long haul. You deserve to be with someone who can give you that. I'm sorry, but I can't be that person, at least not right now."

Katherine breathed in, refusing to break down and cry. "Wow, Stefan. You're the only man in the world who could give a break-up speech to a girl he isn't even dating."

Straightening her shoulders, Katherine strutted towards the door. Of course, it would be like this for them. Katherine and Stefan were victims of time. Back when they were teenagers, the last thing she wanted was to be tied down by a boy, however flawless his body was. Now that she was finally ready, he wasn't. Figures.

"Kat, wait. Let me take you-"

"I don't think so," she said firmly, flipping her hair back. "Katherine Petrova doesn't need a man to take her anywhere."

Stefan almost flinched at the heavy sound of the door slamming.

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Matt recalled his high school days. How all the boys seemed to envy him because he was always surrounded by the three hottest girls on campus. All three of them seemed to be begging for his attention, pulling him into corners for a chance to talk to him, whispering in his ear at parties. Little did the guys know that those three girls only saw him as another one of their girlfriends - their big, muscular jock girlfriend who just happened to come into the world with a penis. They pulled him into dark corners and stayed by his side at parties all right - but it was only ever to squeal, mope, gush or cry about some boy on their radar. Now, years later, as he sat listening to Caroline and Bonnie go on, he felt like had taken a portal right back into his adolescence.

"...And just when I think he's finished, he flips me over, lifts up my rear and off we go again," Caroline giggled.

"And this was Klaus?" Bonnie said disbelievingly. "Wow, who knew he had it in him."

Matt continued to gaze up at the ceiling. "There really isn't enough liquor on the planet for me to listen to this."

He was never more grateful as he was when the doorbell rang, diverting Caroline and Bonnie's attention.

Caroline noticed Klaus' chauffeur right away. The man handed her a large white box and a card. "He's waiting downstairs, Mrs. Mikaelson," he said, before leaving.

Bonnie clapped her hands together and laughed maniacally. "Mrs. Mikaelson? Seriously?"

Caroline glared at her friend. "Shut it."

She closed the door behind her and went back to the living room to read the card. _"Save me a dance. -Fondly, Klaus."_

Lifting the box open, she gasped at the sight of an ice blue chiffon gown with thin spaghetti straps. It was floaty and elegant, an ode to Grace Kelly in _To Catch a Thief_.

Bonnie took one look at the card and then at the dress. "That's the one then."

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"Take a left! No! Why you foolish-"

"Rebekah, mind your tone," Elijah scolded, putting a hand on his sister's arm to keep her from jumping into the front seat of the limo and strangling the driver. He shook his head at the sight of his baby sister. While Rebekah had grown up to be a beautiful young woman, her overall demeanor were almost as dreadful as Niklaus' and Kol's put together.

"We're going to be late."

"There's still plenty of time." Elijah adjusted the blood-red tie on his Armani suit as he looked out the window and into the city traffic. "Would you rather we be tediously early?"

Rebekah sat back and took out her compact, deciding to touch up her make-up as a distraction.

"In fact, I daresay we're so early, we can even return to your apartment."

"Why?"

"So you can change into something more suitable and less...revealing," he finished. Half an hour ago, his sister had hopped into the car in a short, fiery gold Roberto Cavalli dress and began readjusting her cleavage. Right then, Elijah could feel a massive migraine coming along as it so often did whenever he was in the presence of one of his siblings. She swiftly ignored Elijah's disapproval and began barking instructions to the driver.

"You would find a birqa to be too revealing on me." It seemed like all Elijah ever gave her was disapproval - over the way she dressed, the way she partied, the way she refused to settle down, the way she drank wine, the way she breathed, pretty much anything she did was met with an unfavorable opinion. Her other brothers weren't much better either. But at least with Kol and Klaus, she could always put it down to hypocrisy - she wasn't doing anything they hadn't done in the past. With Elijah, though, it was different. He had always strived to be the picture of decorum, never resorting to alcoholism, crass language or promiscuity the way his siblings had. He was the good brother. Or so he would have people.

Rebekah snapped her compact shut and refrained from rolling her eyes. "I just can't wait to give Nik a piece of my mind." She would've done it sooner if Klaus hadn't made it a point to ignore all her calls.

Elijah shut his eyes briefly before facing his sister. "There will be a lot of people at this venue, Rebekah. Several of my firm's clients will be in attendance. So, perhaps, this wouldn't be an ideal time for you to be charged with being a public nuisance."

"What? Is that all that's bothering you - the thought of me embarrassing you in front of your celebrity clientele?" Rebekah nearly screamed. She hated how her outbursts made her look like a brat in the eyes of her family, but whenever Nik felt the need to act like a big old bull in a China shop, everyone just had to tolerate it. "What about him? Aren't you angry at him?"

"Why, what has Niklaus done now?"

Rebekah's eyes went wide. Her brother was an intelligent man, but it appeared that his brain was no stranger to stupidity either. "Let's see. Could it be that he got married without telling either of us? And to that no-good tart of all people," Rebekah grumbled, crossing her arms as she thought of her old high-school rival.

"I will admit I don't like that he's ran off and married someone without discussing it with the family." He had only met Klaus' wife once in passing a few years ago. He couldn't recall forming too much of an opinion about her. He could never have foreseen that years later, she would be his sister-in-law. While Ms. Forbes seemed like a nice enough girl, Elijah would have preferred that she had signed a prenup beforehand. "But there's a time and place to handle these sort of things, and it's not in the presence of a large crowd of people with the press nearby, just waiting to leak anything that might even resemble family scandal."

"It's not fair. He always gets to have his say on who I'm with." Rebekah whined, recalling all the boyfriends Nik had scared off ever since she began dating. She always accepted it, believing that 'family above all' nonsense Nik was always spouting. But heaven forbid she act the same towards him. When she asked her brother to get past his infatuation with little Caroline Forbes, he had given her nothing but contempt and slammed the door in her face.

"I just want to kill him."

Elijah cut his eyes at her. "As I've said, there's a time and place for these sort of things."

**A/N - This chapter will have to be broken up into several parts, because there is still TONS of stuff to get through before we can ****go back to Kol kidnapping Bonnie. Still have to get to the party and get through Damon and Elena talking about their future, Rebekah confronting Klaroline****, Katherine and Elijah finally meeting, Rebekah and Stefan chat, Klaroline dancing, and more Kol and Bonnie. ****Wow, sometimes I wonder if I made a mistake making this story multi-character. **

****Also, reviews are very much appreciated - and make for ****a great incentive to write/update soon ;).**


	5. Chapter 3, Part 2

Caroline couldn't believe all the buzz. She knew the VIP list was packed with celebs and high-profile names, but the response still took her breath away. The amount of people gathered around to catch a glimpse of the stars before they entered the club was insane. From the window of Klaus' limo, she watched as A-list actors, athletes, socialites, well-known entrepreneurs, pretty much all of the city's elite, stopped and posed for the cameras. The glitterati was out in full force.

"Unbelievable," she gasped. She and Klaus sat back in the limo, waiting for the red carpet to clear a bit before they had to step out and face the paparazzi.

"Don't sound so surprised, love." Klaus pulled a stray a stray blonde curl away from her face and tucked it behind her ear. He moved an arm around her shoulder to pull her closer to him. "You knew this place was going to be a hit."

Caroline turned her attention back to her husband and began to tug a little at his dark blue tie. He looked dashing in a three-piece Burberry suit. A proper suit for a proper British boy. Though not much could ever be said about propriety where Klaus was concerned. "Actually, I was talking about the fact that my mother didn't shoot you on the spot when you went to her hotel room."

"It's all a big blur to me now. Though, I believe she did pull out her gun and aimed it at my head at one point in the conversation."

"You do have that effect on people," Caroline grinned. "Thank you."

"For what, baby?"

"Getting her to come around. What exactly did you say to her anyway?"

"I may of reminded her how lucky she is to have you and made her question if she really wanted to lose you all over again."

Caroline nodded, looking down at her hands as she thought back to how estranged she and her mother used to be. Growing up, Elizabeth Forbes was rarely ever around, often leaving Caroline in the care of a nanny. Her father wasn't too different, having become even more distant after the divorce. Caroline had eventually started mending her relationships with both her parents once she was in her teens, but there was always that lingering damage and hurt that could never be completely repaired.

Noticing the distant look in his wife's face, Klaus decided to change the topic. "Now, onto more mannered subjects," he whispered, planting small kisses along her neck. "Like how ravishing you look in that dress."

"Control yourself, Klaus," she lightly reprimanded, though she certainly wasn't trying too hard to shove him away. "We're about to be photographed and I'd rather not have a big hickey on my neck for opening night pictures."

"I don't care." He continued with his kisses. "I rather like leaving my mark on you. Claiming my territory and what not."

"Ugh, you're such an alpha male." Caroline rolled her eyes. This time she really did push him away.

Klaus chuckled and stuffed a hand into the inner pocket of his suit. "Or perhaps you'd be more comfortable with a different symbol of ownership. One with a little more flash and flare." He pulled out a ring box and it was only then that Caroline finally noticed that he was now wearing a gold band on his left ring finger. Why hadn't she noticed it before?

"Oh my god, Klaus, you're wearing-"

"It's nothing compared to what you could be wearing." He opened the ring box and Caroline stopped breathing as she stared at it. Harry Winston. Eight carat. Princess cut. Canary diamond. Perfection sitting in a small box.

"Caroline Forbes, will you please stay married to me?"

"Yes, yes, you big idiot! Yes!" She squealed. "Now give me my ring!" Klaus began to remove the ring from the box, but Caroline couldn't wait that long. She impatiently wrenched it from his grasp, pulled out the ring and tossed the empty box to the ground. She had been waiting a whole month for a real ring. They had used standard wedding bands when they got married, but a month into their 'secret marriage,' Caroline had begun to wonder if Klaus would ever grace her with the engagement ring of her dreams. Looks like she got her wish. "Oh, Klaus. I can already tell we're going to be very happy together," she said, placing the ring on her finger, her eyes never straying from the sparkly yellow rock. "Just the three of us."

While, at first, amused with her actions, Klaus was slightly taken aback when she grabbed his tie and pulled him in a for a kiss. Just then the door opened and a flash of cameras went off.

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"Are you sure you don't want to dance?" Matt asked his date as they looked down at the dance floor. Everyone looked like tiny figurines from up here. The music was pumping through the venue, the drinks were flowing non-stop, everyone seemed to be having an amazing time. "Or grab a table?"

"Are you kidding? This is the best spot," Bonnie insisted. They had left Caroline's place soon after she had received her new dress. Caroline had told her friends to go on without her and Bonnie figured that she would be coming in with Klaus. By the time the two friends had made it to Paradiso Perduto, the place was alive and packed with famous faces. After having her picture taken with Matt, Bonnie decided to head on up to the exclusive dining area and just do a little bit of harmless stalking from the second floor railing.

Bonnie had been to a few of Caroline's other nightclubs, but this was by far the best - not to mention the amount of hype and press attention it received. She was completely awed by the size and vibe of the entire club. The first floor had a large dancing area, three bars. Directly across from the main entrance was a gigantic staircase. The second floor was a dining area with two bars; it wrapped around the first floor, forming a balcony for people to gaze down at all the dancing and action going on; there was also another staircase that led to Caroline's office on the third floor.

"Trust me, this is the perfect spot for star-watching," she gushed, jumping a little. She had already seen a multitude of celebs pass by the main entrance, most of them heading up to the second floor for a more private dining experience. She also spotted a few friends and acquaintances. Katherine had strutted in like she was on top of the world. Vicki came in with a group of her girlfriends. Alaric and Jenna joined up with Lexi who was on Stefan's arm. They were all interrupted by gossip columnist Tessa Bennett, a distant cousin of Bonnie's whom she hadn't heard from in years. Bonnie frowned. She usually avoided distant family, but perhaps this time she should drop by and say hello to Tessa and give her best.

Bonnie even saw her boss there - though she shouldn't have been surprised. While Elijah definitely didn't do the nightclub scene, Bonnie knew a lot of their younger clientele would be in attendance. But as she watched the well-groomed man attempt to drag his sister away from the dance floor and upstairs, she couldn't help but wonder if Elijah only came to keep an eye on Rebekah. As an Upper East Side socialite and alpha-female of the Mikaelson clan, Rebekah had a knack for bringing in a lot of publicity, more often than not, bad publicity, especially with all the partying, drinking and serial-dating she engaged in. Rebekah didn't appear to be listening to anything Elijah was telling her, her eyes were set firmly on the large entrance-way as though waiting for someone in particular to walk through the doors.

"We get to see who's coming in, who's coming up here and plus, the bars on this floor are easier to get to." Turning her attention to another corner, Bonnie caught sight of Damon and Elena, and watched as Damon parted ways once Elena became swamped with fans and inside photographers.

Matt nodded in agreement as he took a sip of the Cristal Brut. All three bars on the first floor were crazy busy. They'd be lucky to have gotten a glass of water down there. Only people on the VIP list had access to the second floor dining and bars, so things weren't as hectic as they were on the first level.

He leaned back a little on the railing and observed his date. "Do you miss it?"

"Miss what?"

"That sort of life. The parties, the glamour. I imagine you don't get to see much of that in a law firm full of suits."

Bonnie laughed. "Matt, please. I wasn't that much of a model." During college she had done a few modeling stints with the girls, mostly editorials for fashion magazines since she was nowhere near tall enough to do the runway like Katherine, Elena and Caroline. "I never really lived that sort of life. I mostly just tagged along with Elena and Caroline as they got into it. But I think the three of us just became tired of it really quick. It's fun when you're really young and want to have a good time, but after awhile it all feels a bit too fake and plastic."

"I get it." Matt did understand. Once he started playing for the big leagues, Matt also engaged in a bit of hedonistic behavior much like Tyler. They went to parties and enjoyed the attention they got from the groupies. It was all wild and fun, but he quickly found himself bored and wearied by it. It didn't take too long for him to detach himself from that sort of lifestyle.

"Uh oh," Bonnie grumbled. "I think we better get down there."

"Why?"

"Take a look."

Matt turned around to see what had gotten Bonnie's attention. There, by one of the bars, was Rebekah and Caroline looking as though they were going to battle to the death.

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Kol pulled the man by his Karl Lagerfeld tie and dragged him toward the dance floor.

"Now, now. Be a good sport and dance," Kol cooed as he danced next to Caroline's assistant, who's anxiety levels were upping by the second. "Come on. Shake that ass."

The man gulped and reluctantly began to dance with Kol. "Look, I know-"

"No I don't think you do, Thierry. Because you're proving to be more and more of a disappointment as the night progresses," Kol said snidely while keeping an easy smile on his face.

"I can't get her alone right now. Caroline just got in not too long ago. She's the hostess - she's going to have to dine and smooze around first," Thierry pled.

"I don't care," Kol wrapped his arms around the man's neck and brought his face in close. "You have exactly two hours to get her alone in her office. Should you fail, keep in mind I have my trusty phone here, ready to send some very disturbing home videos of you and your mistress to your wife. It'll be a heartbreaking scene I'm sure. Even more-so for you once she puts your entire livelihood through the cleaners. Legal fees can be a real drag." With that, Kol released the man and danced away.

Thierry Vanchure took a deep breath as he opened and unopened the button of his suit jacket. He was having one hell of a bad year. As if the pressure of getting this club opened wasn't enough, he was being blackmailed by this psychotic prick into delivering his boss on a silver platter. Breathing in again, he walked away from the dance floor.

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Caroline felt relieved when they had finally made it inside. She and Klaus were late, but fashionably so. Having finally gotten past the camera lights, the press and the well-wishers, Caroline felt like she could breathe again. There were still some members of the press who were given inside access - a few noted city columnists and photographers from upscale magazines - but that she could deal with, especially with Klaus by her side, holding her hand and giving her a reassuring squeeze every time she felt like losing her cool.

"The place looks amazing." Klaus brought her hand to his lips. "Congratulations, Caroline."

Caroline smiled, full of happiness. But that all went to pot when she turned her head and caught sight of Rebekah making a bee-line towards them. Klaus looked over to what had caught Caroline's attention and exhaled loudly.

"Rebekah," he began in a warning tone as his sister approached them, but she quickly cut him off.

"Forget it, Nik. I promised Elijah that I wouldn't waste my breath on you tonight. So you're spared for the time being," she snipped. "Didn't make any promises regarding her. So do me a favor and make yourself invisible for awhile, dear brother."

Klaus looked between the only two women he loved - he could practically see the steam coming off both their ears. "Now ladies-"

"Leave," they both said in unison.

Klaus held up his hands and walked away towards the bar, not wanting to stick around for the battle of the blondes. He was jonesing for a scotch anyway.

Caroline tucked a strand of hair back with her left hand, her ring sparkling against the club's lights. She knew Rebekah would catch it. "You okay? You're looking a bit green there, Rebekah."

Rebekah narrowed her eyes. "How did you do it? Did he knock you up or something? I can't imagine why else my commitment-phobe of a brother would tie himself down to you of all people."

Caroline laughed mockingly. "Seriously? That's rich coming from the woman who once manipulated Stefan into staying with her just because she was afraid of losing him to his brother's girlfriend."

"Don't talk about things you know nothing about," Rebekah snapped.

"I know enough. Stefan told me," Caroline shrugged. "He's here by the way. With someone else." Granted that someone else was just Stefan's close friend, but Rebekah didn't need to know that. "I hope that doesn't bring out too many past wounds and regrets for you."

"The only thing I regret is introducing you to my brother," Rebekah said. The two blondes had been high-school rivals, always going after the same titles (Queen Bee, Head Cheerleader, Homecoming Queen) and after the same boys. After high school they really didn't see much of each other, and by the time they were both through with college, most of their bitter high-school feelings had vanished. By then, they had a few mutual friends and ran in similar circles. They found that they had a bit in common and quickly developed a frenemy-ship. They would never be close friends, or even just friends, but Rebekah and Caroline had figured they weren't in high school anymore, they could grow accustomed to one another. That idea was quickly shot down once Rebekah introduced Caroline to Klaus. He was immediately taken with Caroline and Rebekah didn't like it one bit. She hated how he seemed to actually listen to Caroline while anything she said went into one daft ear and out the other. She went red at the fact that Klaus gave Caroline capital to start up her first business. Rebekah had gone to her half-brother several times over the years to request money to start her fashion line. She had some of her own trust-fund money, but new business required more than she was willing to give on her own. But like the jerk he was, Klaus merely laughed in her face and told her she had a more important job as 'lady of the Mikaelson household.' Representing the family was a job in itself, he had told her - which is why she had made it a point to be anything but a good little girl in front of the press, knowing it would drive him insane...well more insane than he already was.

"You know, Nik's used to dating supermodels, princesses and aristocrats, this is really a step down for him." Rebekah crossed her arms and looked Caroline over. "Honestly, I don't even know what he even sees you."

"Maybe he sees a challenge," Caroline hissed, looking pointedly at her. "You see, unlike some people, I don't go sleeping around with everyone I make eye contact with."

Rebekah moved forward, ready to tear her apart.

"Hey there, Bekah," Matt said, getting in between the two just in the nick of time. "Good to see you again. Won't you come dance with me?" He took his ex-girlfriend's hand and began pulling her toward the dancefloor.

"Rebekah wait," Caroline said softly. She walked up to Rebekah and took both of her hands, surprising her sister-in-law. "We shouldn't fight, not anymore. I think it's time we put all this hostility behind us, don't you?"

Matt saw Klaus returning and wondered what Caroline was up to.

"You think just because you hooked up with my brother, we're going to be friends now?" She sneered, trying to pull her hands away but Caroline held on tight.

"Oh Bex, we don't have to be friends," Caroline got closer to the other blonde and smiled widely, innocently (or so it seemed). She pulled Rebekah in for a hug and whispered loudly in her ear, "We're sisters now."

Rebekah stepped away from her immediately. This time she really did look a bit green. Matt grabbed his ex and pulled her away as she tried to lunge towards Caroline.

Caroline merely snickered at the sight, but stopped once she felt Klaus' presence behind her. She turned around to face him, a large grin on her face. "I think that went really well."

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Bonnie continued to nod at what Tessa was saying, though she wasn't paying much attention. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw Matt drag Rebekah away before the two blondes could create a huge scene. Looking at the dance floor, she desperately wanted to wrap up her conversation with Tessa. She found out her cousin was one of the few press members invited inside for an exclusive. They exchanged formalities, talking about their parents and other relatives and promised to get in touch later when Tessa wasn't working. It was an empty promise and they both knew it, but it was the sort of thing said often enough among relatives.

Bonnie pranced gracefully into the dance floor, dancing with just herself as she made her way through the crowd. The music was lively and energetic and blazed all around her. Just as she considered looking for Elena, she bumped into a solid chest. She blushed a little, looking up at the gorgeous dark-haired man in a dark-blue Hugo Boss suit and tie. "Sorry," she muttered, going to the left, but she moved just as the other man went to his right. The same thing happened when she tried moving to the right. The two just kept bumping into each other. Bonnie put a hand to her mouth and laughed.

"Well if we're going to dance, then let's dance," the man smiled, holding out his hand. Ooh, British, Bonnie thought as she heard the voice. Very nice.

"Ok. Show me what you've got." She slowly took his hand.

Kol's grin widened exponentially. "With pleasure."

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Katherine huffed as she went up to the second floor. She had seen Stefan coming in with Lexi earlier and couldn't stop from grinding her teeth. She knew the two were just friends, but it always irritated her to see Stefan with someone else. She shook her head. No. She would not wait around, dropping hankies, hoping Stefan Salvatore would finally take the hint. Katherine resolved to find something else to amuse her for the rest of the night. She zeroed in on everyone at the bars - a few hotel owners, rock-stars, pop-stars, Monacan royalty. Nothing too interesting, she thought, until her eyes drifted towards the balcony where she saw the most gorgeous specimen. He was looking down distastefully at the dance crowd. His hair was perfect. His Armani suit crisp and cool. He was drinking a scotch. No wedding ring. No tan-line on his finger to suggest that he'd taken off his ring. In all honesty, the man looked like a complete tight-ass, but he was wearing a blood-red tie that matched her outfit and Katherine loved a man who could wear her color. Whatever happened tonight, Katherine knew she would be leaving with him.

She sashayed over to him and leaned back on the railing. "Looking for someone?"

"Not exactly." Ooh, British, Katherine thought happily as she heard the accent. Very nice.

His jaw went rigid and he looked annoyed at being interrupted from his thoughts. She waited for him to look at her. Getting the hint that this woman wouldn't be leaving his side anytime soon, he sighed and gave her his attention.

Katherine smiled her I-don't-get-up-for-less-than-five-million-dollars-in-the-morning-because-I'm-a-freakin-super-model smile. He looked into her eyes. His face seemed so stoic, his dark eyes looked at her blankly. She had to admit she was thrown off her game a bit. "Care to dance?" She asked with a sly smile.

"No," he replied plainly. Katherine nearly fell off the railing. What was it - dump on Katherine day? First Stefan, now this tall, drink of water. What was going on in the universe for this to happen? Aside from Stefan, Katherine didn't really know how to deal with a man's rejection.

She swallowed and looked away, nervously touching her hair. This man didn't even look at her cleavage. His eyes were completely glued to her face. What sort of weirdo is he?

"I'm in need of another drink." He looked down at his glass before turning his attention back to her. "Would you care to join me, Katerina?"

She squinted her eyes at him. "No one calls me that but my parents." And they certainly don't say it like that, in that voice, like it's the most beautiful name in existence.

"Forgive me, I heard them referring to you by it some years ago and I believed it to be your given name."

"Do we know each other?"

"We haven't been officially introduced. Elijah Mikaelson." He held out his hand for her to shake. "Our families are...acquainted with one another."

Katherine let out an undignified snort. 'Acquainted' was putting it lightly. A couple years ago, Klaus Mikaelson had taken over as CEO for Mikaelson Industries and tried to do a hostile takeover with Petrova Inc. When he failed to do that, rumor has it he had a mole spread some sketchy information to the S&E Commission that put Petrova Inc and several other companies under their constant watch. During that time, her father had trouble convincing others to do business with him and many of his shareholders sold their stock. It didn't take long to figure out who they sold them to - none other than the Wall Street Wolf himself. It was a horrid time for her family - with his stress levels high, her father had suffered a severe stroke. He survived, but just barely.

Looking over at Elijah, she wondered if she should walk away. He was a Mikaelson after all, but he wasn't the one they hated. And he was beautiful. So she took his hand. "Katherine...but you can keep calling me Katerina if you want."

"Very well then." Elijah shook her small hand delicately and gave her a small smile, his eyes warming up just a bit. He moved his fingers towards her wrist as they shook hands. "Are you alright Katerina?"

"Of course. Why do you ask?"

"It's just that I can feel your pulse racing. It's quite fast."

It was only then that she realized she was still holding onto his hand. "Oh." She moved away and laughed a little. "Now, how about that drink?"

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"Absolutely not," Klaus grumbled.

"I was promised a dance," Caroline reminded him.

"Yes, a dance. As in I'd take you in my arms and twirl you about. Not an obscene bump and grind in front of all these tossers." He gestured towards the uninhibited movements of the dancers on the floors. A few of the dancers began to look at him funny until Klaus growled at them to mind their own business. Last thing he needed was one of these wankers to whip out their phone, snap a picture of him making a fool of himself and post it all over the internet.

"It's a nightclub, Klaus," Caroline pulled at his jacket sleeve. "The DJ's not going to start playing the Emperor's Waltz anytime soon." Honestly, sometimes he acted like he was from another century.

"Caroline, you can't possibly expect me to dance like-like that." He pointed towards a pair who looked more like they were dry-humping each other than dancing. "I'm 35."

"So what?"

Klaus shook his head. His lovely wife was still in her twenties. She had yet to fully understand that when you reach a certain age, somethings simply become verboten.

"Please?" At her pout, he muttered a few choice words under his breath. He took her hand and twirled her around before bringing her back into his arms. They started to slow dance while all the dancers around them continued with their debauched movements.

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Damon took a long drink of his glass of champagne. He really couldn't wait for this night to be over. He had stayed on the main floor, knowing that Elena's agent would have her be on the second, hobbnobbing with all the right people, the ones who could take her career even further. He just didn't feel like being around all of that. It took him ages just to escape that snarky columnist from the Daily News who kept asking him questions about the breakup.

Looking down at his now empty glass, Damon regretted chugging it all down so quickly. The bars downstairs were packed. It would be hard getting another drink unless he went on up. He walked back towards the bar - he'd rather wait in line than be up there.

"Damon, wait," Elena called out, making her way through the dance floor. People recognized her immediately and began whispering amongst themselves. Damon cursed and kept walking. "Damon," she called again. "Wait!"

She finally reached him and he wondered how she managed to catch up so quickly in such long heels.

"Hello." She moved her hand in front of his face. "Did you not hear me?"

"Yes, Elena, I think the whole tri-state area heard you," Damon muttered.

"Where have you been?"

"Right here."

"I've been upstairs, waiting for you." She looked too sad. She looked too beautiful. He had to get away.

"I'm sorry Elena." He ran a hand through his hair and looked around at the crowd. People were watching them. He tilted his head up and noticed a few people looking directly at them from the railing. "I know what you want, but I can't do this tonight...Besides, I need another drink."

He walked away swiftly. Elena shook her head and went after him. That foolish man. Did he really think it would be so easy?

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**A/N - Ok, so there's still one more part of this chapter to go - the party is far from over. I was planning on having Delena talk about their relationship in this part, but it looks like it'll be bumped over to the next one. Next chapter has more Klaroline, Kol/Bonnie, Delena, Kalijah and you'll be seeing a bit of Tessa and Thierry. I know a lot of people like the idea of Rebekah & Caroline as friends, but I've always seen them more as making great frenemies rather than besties. BTW, when Caroline says "Just the three of us" she's counting the ring as the third person ;) - she's not pregnant or anything.**

**NikMik & Sarah asked about what Kol was up to and for now we know that he's trying to kidnap Caroline, but we also know from the previous chap that he ended up nabbing Bonnie. There'll be more about why he did this in the chapters to come. Also, I'm loving writing Kol and I hope you're enjoying him too. **

**EyesLikeLiquidFire commented about Caroline & Elena confronting each other. That may play out in the next chap - but it won't happen in the way you'd think ;)**

**Missycole23 asked if Kat and Elena would ever have a sisterly moment without jealousy. I think they will mend their relationship eventually, but it's going to be a slow progression that'll happen much later in the story. **

****Please take a moment to review and let me know what you think of this chapter! And huge thanks to those who reviewed the last few chapters!**


	6. Chapter 3, Part 3

**A/N - Thank you to those who reviewed the previous chapters! This part has Kennett, Klaroline, Kalijah and Delena. **

"Prima ballerina," he said.

"Too short," she replied.

"Back up dancer for Lady Gaga."

"Too tall."

"International spy/femme fatale."

"Not even close."

Bonnie threw her head back and laughed as she and Kol danced around each other. In the past hour, she had discovered a few things about the man next to her. He was made in England, a goofball of a dancer and had a thing for playing guessing games. She had found him menacingly adorable.

"I've got it," he said, snapping his fingers together. "You're an heiress. A lady of leisure who gallivants around the world, leaving broken hearts in your trail."

"That's it. You've got me." Bonnie shook her head.

Kol smiled and pulled her into his arms. "Yeah, I've got you."

They were both suddenly dancing very slowly in each other's arms while the heavy music poured around them. His face moved down closer towards hers. Too close. In the back of her head, Bonnie felt alarm bells going off, warning her not to be foolish enough to get so close to a man she had just met. But another part of her, the one she had shoved away long ago when she decided she was an adult, felt like she was in high school again, having fun with a cute guy at a party.

"At least give me a hint," Kol whispered, his lips just a small space way from hers.

Bonnie placed her hands on his shoulders and stepped back a bit, putting some space between them. As much as she wanted to kiss the life out of his man, the rational part of her had won - as it always did. She wasn't a teenager anymore and she didn't do casual flings.

So, she decided to say the one thing about herself that she knew turned off strangers. "I'm a lawyer."

But her dance partner didn't seem the slightest bit surprised, just a tad amused. "Really? I wasn't aware lawyers could dance." He swung her around. "My brother's one and the only time he even came close to dancing was when I April-Fooled him into thinking his suit was on fire."

"You're just the picture of maturity."

"I'm British. It comes with the territory."

"Usually whenever I mention I'm a lawyer at a party, people look at me like I'm going to suck the life out of the entire room."

"Not me, darling." Kol shook his head and lightly bumped his forehead against hers as they locked eyes. "I'm picturing you in the courtroom right now - all confident and sharp-tongued. You're quite a vision."

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Klaus muttered a curse as he watched that wretched spoon go into his wife's mouth. Damn that thing and damn her. He couldn't believe he was actually getting jealous over a piece of cutlery. But it was her fault for giving it so much attention. Caroline wasn't doing her wifely duties. She was wasting all her time licking and moaning into a silly spoon when there was something much more important she could be giving the same attention to. The thing in question hardened inside his pants just as he caught her licking the remnants of the raspberry creme brulee.

Damn her.

"Mmm Klaus, you should really try this. It's heaven."

"I doubt it."

"It's the best thing I've ever tasted."

Great, now he was jealous of the dessert too. "Don't tell lies, love. It's not polite."

Klaus looked around the second floor, watching the patrons of the upstairs restaurant and bar. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. But Klaus' wasn't having any of that - he'd be damned if others were content while he was miserable. He scowled at anyone who dared to look their way.

"Something wrong?" She asked, pretending not to notice his behavior. Caroline found it amusing how her husband could turn from a ruthless businessman to a spoiled, petulant child who was denied candy in a matter of minutes.

"Why are we still here?" After they left the dance floor, they did the rounds, spoke to the right people, mingled. Klaus hated every minute of it, but knew it was a necessity that had to be done. He had even sat through drinks with one of Caroline's lackluster girlfriends from college and her ignoramus of a husband. The couple had suggested Klaus and Caroline join them for dinner, but Caroline said she wasn't too hungry. She suggested drinks and dessert instead. The drinks came and went, and thanks to Klaus' boorish attitude, so did the other couple. But much to his chagrin, the creme brulee had stuck around and Caroline refused to leave without savoring every minuscule bite.

"You said you weren't hungry."

Caroline merely shrugged.

Klaus moved his hand up her knee. "Let's go up to your office."

"What for?"

"So we can play Yahtzee, Caroline." Klaus rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Why do you think?"

Caroline kept her attention on her food, not bothering to look up at Klaus. She wondered how long it would be until he started sticking out his tongue and panting like a dog. "We've already done it there."

"So what?"

"It's just a bit too...repetitive. We need a change of scenery."

"Then pick somewhere else. Pick a dark corner on this floor for all I care," he bit out. "Let's just get on with this. I want to shag."

"OK. I know just the place to go." Caroline brought her hand to his crotch and caught a large smile forming on Klaus' face. She thoroughly enjoyed watching it recede when she uttered her next few words. "After I'm done."

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Elijah Mikaelson didn't usually go for younger women. At least that's what he kept telling himself as his age progressed. While a part of his mind still burned at the thought of turning 40 in just two years time, he refused to go into some tacky mid-life crisis as so many of his acquaintances had - the kind that usually involved women half their ages. While Katherine was not the first young woman to try to get him, she was by far the first who had succeeded.

He didn't care that she was a Petrova. Whatever feud Niklaus had started with the Petrova family didn't concern him much. But he still shouldn't have asked her for a drink. He should have walked away from Katherine the second she came toward him, looking like a cat that had just caught the cream. He should have turned her down as he would have anyone else. But his instinct told him that Katherine wasn't just anyone else and Elijah always went with his instinct. It hadn't failed him too much over the course of his life, so he figured it was reliable enough.

It was supposed to be harmless. One drink with a beautiful woman to pass the time before he was obligated to drag Rebekah away from whatever mess she had gotten herself into. Of course, Katherine had already sunk her talons into his arm and wasn't planning on letting go anytime soon. She insisted on food to accompany her lonely drink. So now here he was, watching her eat. He didn't show it but he was amazed at how such a tiny thing could tuck away so much food.

"Liking the duck?" Katherine asked after swallowing a large bite of her bœuf bourguignon.

"It's divine." Elijah cleared his throat and looked at his duck a l'orange. He had hardly touched it. It really was a great dish, but Elijah found himself not so much hungry for food at the moment. "Thank you for suggesting it."

"Well, I have to admit. I helped Caroline plan out the menu. I pretty much ate everything that's on it at some point."

Elijah held back a smile. With so many dishes surrounding her, Katherine was pretty much eating everything on it right now.

"So you're a lawyer, huh?"

"Yes."

"That's..." Dull, boring, hit the snooze button, not a job your brag about at parties - those were the options that popped up in Katherine's mind, but she settled for something entirely different. "Neat."

He arched an eyebrow at her response and smirked a little. She got the feeling he knew very well what she really thought of his job.

"Did you always want to be one?"

"No," Elijah said without further explanation. He took a bite of his food and chewed very slowly as he gazed at the other patrons. "And you, Katerina? Did you always wish to be a model?"

"It was definitely on my Top 5 list growing up. It was right up there with Unicorn Princess, supreme empress of the world, or a music/dancing sensation - you know, like Beyonce."

"You're still young. I'm sure there's enough time left for your to master a few of those professions."

Katherine nodded her head in between bites. She could totally be the next Beyonce, she thought.

"So why are you a lawyer if you don't like lawyer-ing?"

"I never said that I didn't like it, simply that it wasn't always what I wanted to be."

"Then what did you want to be?"

He dropped his fork and leaned back on his side of the booth. Katherine watched him as his eyes drifted downwards as though he were trying to remember something.

No one had ever asked Elijah what he wanted to be or wanted to do with his life. Not his teachers or his friends. Not even his family. Especially not his family - no, they made sure to tell him what he was going to be first. He had known from a young age that he would have to take a job that would somehow benefit the family and sure enough, right after university, his father had insisted he follow Finn's footsteps and also attend law school. And like a good son, he had obeyed, no questions asked.

"It doesn't matter anymore," he said quietly.

"Don't be silly." Katherine tilted her head and grabbed his hand from across the table. "Of course it matters."

He looked at her small hand over his and then caught her stare. For the first time since they met, she saw something genuine about her actions. She didn't look at him now like she was after something, she looked as though she was interested in what he had to say because it mattered to her.

It had been so long since someone took an interest in his own life, asking about his own interests. His siblings had never bothered coming to him unless they needed his intellectual prowess to make one of their mistakes disappear. He and Niklaus had drifted apart over the years - their relationship becoming strained by betrayal and anger. Rebekah came and went as she pleased. Finn alienated himself from them as much as he could, taking his wife Sage and their daughter with him. While he worked with Elijah on a professional level, running their law firm as co-partners, Finn preferred to stay away from the "Mikaelson Madness" and Elijah couldn't blame him for it. And then there was Kol - Kol who had simply vanished after a bad falling out with Niklaus. Elijah had tried to find him for several months, but like a true Mikaelson, Kol always knew how to cover his tracks. At this point, he could only hope his youngest brother was safe and well.

Katherine pulled her hand away. She was growing exceedingly nervous under Elijah's intense stare. The man sitting across from her hadn't said anything for the past few minutes, not even one of his one syllable responses. Weren't lawyers supposed to be in love with the sound of their own voice? Maybe he saved all his words for the courtroom. Maybe she shouldn't have brought up what appeared to be a really touchy subject for him.

"Elijah?"

"Yes."

"Are you OK?"

"Yes."

"You going to finish your duck?"

"No."

"Can I have it?"

"Yes."

"For God's sake Elijah, are you just going to sit there and stare at me all night?"

"Yes."

"Fine," Katherine huffed. "Give me your duck."

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Damon took a large swig of the Perrier-Jouet straight from the bottle as he watched Elena's tiny fists pound against the door, hoping desperately someone would hear her above the pulsating music the DJ was spinning.

He sat on the floor, not bothering to help his ex. He didn't care much. The way he saw it, if he had to be trapped somewhere better it be a liquor cellar than anywhere else.

"Why would you bring us here?" Elena yelled at him.

"I didn't bring you anywhere. I went to steal some bubbly and you followed," he shrugged and pulled at his tie. "How was I supposed to know the door would lock?"

"Where's your phone?"

"Out of charge."

"Why do you never charge it?"

"I do charge the damn thing. But it eats up power the way your sister eats up men."

Elena shook her head at him and continued to bang on the door. She wished she had brought her phone with her, but the dress she was wearing wasn't exactly designed to carry any tech gear.

"Just relax, Elena." Damon patted a spot next to him on the floor.

"How are you calm? Oh that's right - there's booze around. That should solve everything for you."

"It often does," he said, smiling fondly at a case of Krug at one of the top shelves. He caught Elena's irritated frown and sighed. "Look, with the way they were going through liquor upstairs, I imagine it won't be long before someone comes down here for more."

"This is just typical," Elena said as she began to pace back and forth. "It's the hottest party of the year and not only am I having the most miserable time, but I'm stuck with said misery in a cellar."

"Why did you follow me then?"

"You know why," she snapped. "I wanted us to talk."

"Yes, talk, talk, talk. Because we never do enough of that right?" Damon rolled his eyes. He looked around and wondered where the whiskey was parked.

"You can't just walk away completely, Damon. Not without giving me a reason."

Damon didn't respond. She crossed her arms and waited for him to respond. Elena grew even more irritated as she watch him pay more attention to the bottle of champagne in his hand.

"I can't believe this." Elena threw her hands in the air. "I can't believe I'm wasting my time with you."

Damon's head shot up at her words. "Well now you don't have to. You're free, Elena. You don't have to waste any more of your precious time on me again."

"I didn't mean-"

"But it's exactly what you meant." He pushed the bottle away and stood up to face her. "I'm the deadbeat bringing you down."

"I never said that!"

"But you should. You should be saying that to yourself and getting as far away from me as you possibly can because you're not going to get anywhere as long as I'm around to hold you back."

"What are you even talking about?"

"I'm talking about the fact that I'm 34! And this is where I am with my life: stuck in a room, drinking my brain cells away. And it's probably where I'll be in another ten years. You can't possibly tell me you want to be by my side when that happens." He ran both hands through his hair, almost pulling at it like a mad man. When his TV show got cancelled after seven years, Damon thought nothing of it, expecting to bounce back in no time. Maybe he would do something in the big screen for a change. He didn't realize that a year later he would be doing commercials for men's shampoo and shaving cream. He was practically living off paycheck to paycheck now, having lost most the money he made in the beginning of his career to gambling and buying himself a flashy lifestyle just to show his father that he didn't need the Salvatore trust fund. While his career began tanking, Elena's took off with lightening speed. Movie offers, fashion labels, magazines all flocked to her as the next big thing.

"You're going places with your life, Elena and I'm happy for you. Really, I am," he said, turning back to her. "But let's face it - I'm a has-been. It won't be long before people see us together and wonder what the hell someone like you is doing with dried-up actor like me."

"Damon," Elena began softly as she took his hands. With his career taking a downturn, she knew he had been suffering, but he had never brought it up until now. "I know it's been a rough year for you, but it's not always going to be like this. You're a talented man and you will get work again."

"Maybe." He nodded though he didn't believe her. "But that doesn't change what's happening with us."

"Do you really want to do this? Do you really want to let our careers ruin everything we have?" Elena cupped his face with her hands. "If you want to do that, fine. But you don't have to, you know? You can let me in and we can work through it together like we always do."

Damon pressed his face into her hands, bringing her palms towards his lips. He didn't know what to do anymore. He had missed her so much this past month. He thought he was doing what was best for Elena by letting her go, but now he wondered if he just took the coward's way out.

Just as he was about to respond, a couple burst into the room, leaving the door wide open. The woman was all giggles and moans, the man was growling and his hands were everywhere. Their mouths were locked together in what appeared to be a heavy game of tonsil hockey. Damon and Elena groaned in disgust as they watched the pair.

"For the love of God, stop! Just stop!" Elena bellowed.

Caroline pulled away from Klaus immediately. She looked behind Klaus and finally noticed they were not alone in the cellar. "Elena! What are you doing here?"

"Don't worry, Barbie. It's not what you and Ken were about to do just now," Damon grumbled, grabbing a bottle of Krug from a top shelf.

Klaus, for his part, didn't seem to care that there was an audience and kept moving his hands around Caroline's body.

"Klaus, stop it!" Caroline scolded, pushing away his hands and walking over towards Elena.

"Long story short: Damon went to steal booze. I followed him. Then we both got stuck down here," Elena explained. She took one look at Klaus and gave him the stink-eye. "I'd ask what you're doing here, but that's pretty obvious."

"Don't be silly!" Caroline blushed. "I just came here to...to get a case of champagne. We're running low upstairs."

"Uh huh. I see." Elena stared blankly at her friend. If they were stranded on an island and their survival relied on Caroline's ability to tell a lie, they were sure to be dead in less than a minute.

"And Klaus is here to help," she added.

"I was here to shag," Klaus said plainly, snagging the bottle from Damon's hands and taking a large swig.

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"What are you doing here?"

Tessa squinted at the man through the darkness. She was caught red-handed in Caroline's office and she knew she had to act fast. "Good to see you again too, Terry."

"It's Thierry," he spat, heading towards the columnist. Of all the press folks he had to work with leading up to the club's opening, this one was the most difficult. "And what the hell are you doing here?"

He placed the files he had brought for Caroline on her desk and waited for a response.

"Just waiting for my interview with the hostess with the mostess."

"You already had it - one week ago - and that still doesn't explain why you're here alone in her office."

"I don't think she'll mind. I'm a relative of a dear friend of hers, so we're good," she shrugged carelessly. "Six degrees of separation and all."

"Yeah right." Thierry wasn't buying any of her lies and he didn't have time to think about what Tessa was up to. He just had to get her out of here before Caroline, or worse, Kol came through the door.

Thierry ran a shaky hand through his hair. He was running over an hour late, but earlier he had caught Kol dancing the night away with a brunette and figured that might distract him for awhile. After that, he had finally managed to convince Caroline to pop by her office to sign off some invoices. But then she had run off somewhere with that new husband of hers and he hadn't seen her since. Still, Caroline always kept her word and he hoped that she would eventually come up to her office as she promised. That should give Kol enough opportunity to do whatever it was he planned on doing. He shuddered at the thought of the man hurting his boss. Caroline was good to him and he didn't like the thought of handing her over to some lunatic, but Kol had more on Thierry than just his affair. He had knowledge of pretty much every wrongdoing Thierry ever committed. Thierry didn't know how Kol dug up all the skeletons in his closet, but he didn't doubt that the man was crazy enough to use it against him.

"Come on, you're leaving." He grabbed Tessa's arm and started to drag her out of the office.

"Hey let go!" Tessa shrieked as she repeatedly pounded her clutch on his head.

Thierry tried to ignore the headache that was forming inside his brain as he thought about how to get rid of Tessa. He could call a bouncer, but that would draw too much unwanted attention, especially if they were dragging a screeching woman through the front entrance. The only other option was to get her through the back staircase that led down towards the back alley.

"Watch the dress, you little toerag. It's Prada," Tessa yelled, trying not to lose her balance as Thierry pulled her down the back stairway. "If you people think you're getting a glowing review from me after this..."

At this point, Thierry decided it was better to just click the mute button on this woman. One stinking review in a lame city newspaper was the least of his worries. He took in a large gulp of the cold night air once they were outside. She was still screaming away at him, but he didn't care. He felt as though this was the first time he had breathed all night.

"Hello, are you even listening to me?"

"Look, I caught you breaking and entering Caroline's office," he stated with much irritation. "And unless you want me to report it to someone, you need to leave. Right now."

Tessa opened her mouth to respond, but froze when she caught sight of a pair of headlights flashing down from the alley. The dark SUV came to a scraping halt in front of them.

"What the hell?" Thierry said in confusion as two men got out of the car.

One of the men shot Thierry in the shoulder with a silencer, knocking him out. Tessa screamed as she watched Thierry's body being drug into the car. The other man came up behind her and before she could fight back, her mouth was covered and she was passed out.

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"I didn't drink enough," Bonnie stammered as she and Matt crawled into the limo. Bonnie wasn't sure what time it was - probably really late, considering that the party had wound down when they left the club.

Matt arched his eyebrows at his friend, but wisely decided to stay silent. By the time he and Rebekah parted ways and he had caught up to Bonnie, she was making her way through a line of shots at the second floor bar. She refused to tell him what happened to make her so glum. Instead of pushing questions on her, Matt simply took over the stool next to her and asked if she needed a drinking buddy, to which Bonnie eagerly nodded her head.

The limo moved forward and the two friends sat in silence for awhile, both content to just watch the city pass by through the car windows.

"How was Rebekah?" Bonnie asked after awhile.

"Fine. I'm pretty sure she wanted to rip Caroline's head off, but other than that she seemed fine," Matt shrugged. "Anyway, I think she forgot all about it the moment she caught sight of Stefan."

"Ah yes. Stefan. I bet he's a tough act to follow."

Matt cleared his throat. It was often said behind his back that he was Rebekah's rebound from Stefan and he used to wonder just how much truth there was to it.

"Oh sorry!" Bonnie placed a hand on his arm once she caught his expression. "I didn't mean it like that. It's just that he's Stefan you know?"

Matt rolled his eyes and looked away, grinding his teeth a bit. He had dealt with one too many women crushing over Stefan Salvatore. When he was thirteen, it was Elena hopelessly in love with the boy. It was just puppy love, but it was still annoying nonetheless. When he was sixteen, it was Caroline, planning out her future wedding to Stefan. He had to listen to what flowers and decorations they would have on that special day in June. Matt had hoped Bonnie would be the exception, but no such luck. Bonnie was a lot quieter about her crush on the younger Salvatore brother, but he had seen it there too. Matt didn't know how Stefan did it. The man was practically a brooding recluse and yet he had all the best ladies wrapped around his finger, hanging on his every word.

"Are you sure you don't want me to take you home?" Matt asked.

Bonnie shook her head. "No, just drop me at Caroline's place. It's much closer. Besides, she'll probably be by in the morning and I'll have someone to talk to."

"Bonnie, you've got me, always," Matt told her in a reassuring tone. "What happened?"

Bonnie smiled sadly, reflecting back on her brief encounter with the hot English guy at the club. "Oh just the classic story. Girl meets boy. Girl and boy dance. Girl foolishly thinks there's something real happening while boy plans out his quickest escape. Ugh, I'm an idiot."

"He's the idiot - whoever he is."

"His name's Ken Addams." Bonnie listened to the name as it came out from her own lips. "Oh my god. That's a fake name isn't it? He gave me a fake name." She shoved her hands into her face. "Stupid, stupid, stupid," she said to herself.

"It might be real."

Bonnie threw him a look. "He told me he'd see me again, but didn't get my number or contact info."

"Yeah, it's a fake name."

Bonnie leaned back, a dejected scowl on her face. Matt gazed back at her. Eventually, they burst into laughter.

"You must think I'm so pathetic."

Matt shook his head. "I think you're beautiful." He took her hand in his. "Especially when you're being pathetic."

Matt held her hand for the remainder of the ride and Bonnie felt a kind of solace she hadn't experienced in a long time. It had always been that way between the two of them. Good friends who were always there for one another. She and Matt even made an agreement to be each other's back up plan. If they were 50 and still single, they made a pact to get together. Until then, there would always be an invisible line between Matt and her. The one that separated friendship from something more and it was at times like these she wondered what would happen if they ever crossed that little line.

When they reached Katherine and Caroline's place, Matt turned to her and asked softly, "You want me to come up?"

She looked into his hopeful blue eyes. Katherine was right, they really were too blue to be real.

Bonnie wanted to say yes, but they had both been drinking and she was afraid if he did come up - they just might cross that invisible line. She knew that if and when they did that, it wouldn't be as a drunken one night stand. Matt was too important to her for it to be that tawdry. "No, it's fine. I'll call you tomorrow."

Matt looked a bit disappointed, but nodded his head. She didn't have to explain, he understood what she was thinking and agreed. He kissed her cheek goodbye and whispered, "He really is an idiot, you know."

She grinned and hopped out of the limo. He waited until Bonnie was inside the building before signaling to the chauffeur to drive on.

Bonnie took out her spare key once she got to Caroline's apartment. She let herself in and without turning on the lights or looking around, she headed straight towards one of the large windows. She watched Matt's limo disappear down the street and sighed. She had made the right choice, hadn't she? Before she could question herself further a hand came around her mouth as someone held her firmly from behind.

"I'm sorry it has to be this way, darling," Kol whispered into her ear before dragging her away.

**A/N - So finally, we can move on to chapter 4! I had planned on writing Stefan and Rebekah into this chapter as well as Caroline and Elena hashing things out - but I figured it was running too long as it is. **

**Please review and let me know what you think!**


	7. Chapter 4

**A/N - Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! I loved reading them :). This chapter has Klaroline, Klaus & Kol arguing, Kennett, Kalijah and a morose Stefan.**

Caroline leaned back on the chaise and tried to focus on the papers in front of her. But it was all so difficult to do, especially as her eyes kept wandering back toward the naked man in bed. He was snoring lightly; his body was stretched out. The comforter was close to his hips, leaving much of his torso exposed. Caroline sighed. If she had known Klaus looked this good naked five years ago, she would've given into his hollow charm right away. But perhaps it was for the best. She would never admit it to him, but she loved the teasing, cat and mouse dance they had engaged in for so long.

Despite the brief embarrassment at being caught by Damon and Elena the previous night, Caroline couldn't deny that she had an itch that needed to be attended to and only Klaus knew just the right way to scratch. In a hurry, she had grabbed the files Thierry had placed in her office, grabbed her husband and left the club early. It wasn't the mark of a good hostess to flee from her own party, but by the time they were in the limo, Caroline couldn't find it in herself to care - especially considering how good Klaus' lips felt as they descended further and further down her body.

Giving her head a quick shake, she forced her eyes to return to the invoices at hand. She signed them off and quickly stuffed them back into her Marc Jacobs briefcase. It was only then that she noticed a small cream-colored envelope popping out of one of the pockets. She smiled, thinking it would be another drawing from Klaus. Every now and then, he would surprise her with a beautiful sketch of herself. People who had to deal with him in a professional capacity would never know it, but Klaus was quite the artist and it was this hidden talent that made him a bit of a romantic. He had spent five years sending her gifts that showed off his artistic prowess. Caroline had spent five years pretending like they meant nothing to her and then tucking them away in a safe little box underneath her bed.

She opened the envelope and pulled out the card. She frowned. It wasn't a drawing and the handwriting certainly didn't belong to Klaus. Typed out in bold, the message read:

_"Lies and secrets are like a cancer in the soul. They eat away what is good and leave only destruction behind. Be prepared to deal with the aftermath." **_

Caroline flipped over the card, looking for a signature but there was nothing to indicate who had sent it. Pushing the letter back into her bag, she began to wonder if Thierry had left this for her. As far as she knew, her assistant was the last person in her office before she dropped by to pick up the papers. But why would he leave a message so strange and ominous? Perhaps he had a clue as to who sent it.

She pulled out her phone, on the verge of texting Thierry, when she heard Klaus mumbling gibberish in his sleep. Caroline snickered at the sight and dropped the phone on the chaise. She removed her satin white robe and crawled, naked, back into bed. Creepy letters be damned. It wouldn't be the first time in her life she received one. They came and went with business, competitors always trying to knock someone else off. Usually they were harmless, empty-handed threats at best. She could think about it later if she wanted to. For now, there were far more pressing matters to attend to. She straddled Klaus and began peppering kisses across his chest.

Klaus' entire body perked up instantly. He groaned as he felt Caroline's hand lightly stroking his morning wood. "Waking up with you is the best, love."

His eyes blinked open as Caroline's lips trailed down his body, towards his member. "It's about to get even better," she said, licking her lips.

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Stefan rolled his neck, trying to stretch out the kinks. He and Lexi had stayed up late into the night, drinking, dancing, catching up. It was a great night, so naturally it just had to be followed with the most unpleasant morning ever. Lexi knew Stefan couldn't hold his liquor the way she could, so after dropping Stefan at his hotel room, she made sure room service brought over a hangover care-package of alka-seltzer and water for him in the morning. He was still trying to shake off his hangover by the time his taxi dropped him at Salvatore Consolidated. He had planned to head straight home in the morning, but as he was checking out of the hotel, he remembered that he had left his work laptop in his office.

He crinkled his forehead and rubbed his eyes as he thought over this morning's events. There was a headache accompanied with vomiting over the faucet. Then a tiresome search for his mobile, which he finally found in his coat pocket, tucked in with a strange, anonymous letter that he didn't care to think about until he was completely sobered up. This was followed by more vomiting. And concluded by this last-minute field-trip to SC.

Once he reached the top floor, Stefan swiped his access card through the magnetic reading head and waited for the glass doors to open. He hated coming into the office, usually preferring to telecommute from his family home and video-conference in for meetings. But whenever he was in the city, he thought it best to show up at the main building to get some work done and show the staff that he really was a living human being and not just a guy on a computer screen.

Heading over to his office, it was the strange squeaks and sounds coming from behind the door that made him pause. No one really went into his office except for himself and he knew the cleaning crew didn't work on Saturdays. He walked cautiously towards the door, the muddled noise got louder as he got closer. Mentally counting to three, he barged in, hoping to catch the trespasser off guard. His eyes widened as he took in the scene in front of him.

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Curious and stark naked, Katherine pranced around Elijah's apartment. She couldn't help but giggle as her mind replayed last night's events. She had been more than pleased when the man had accepted her offer of going back to his place last night. He was a gentlemen right up until they had made it into his bedroom, where he had picked her up and all but threw her onto his bed and proceeded to rock her little world. She just knew he would be the type - classy on the streets and freaky in the sheets - and he did not disappoint.

And now here she was, in the morning after, sore, satisfied but completely alone. Katherine had woken up an hour earlier with no delicious naked man in sight. Elijah must have left at some point, but she didn't know where he went or how to reach him. Perhaps he expected her gone by the time she got back as part of the unwritten rules of a one night stand. While Katherine was very familiar with the ritual, Elijah didn't seem like the kind of man who did one nighters and even if he did, she was sure he would leave some sort of eloquent, parting note behind. She also got the impression that he was suspicious of anyone who came within two feet of him, so why would leave her all by herself in his opulent penthouse, packed with valuables?

Shrugging her shoulders, Katherine figured he would return soon enough and that now was as good a time as any to snoop around. She strapped on her red Manolo Blahniks from the night before and looked around the bedroom. Since her clothes had seemed to be playing a disappearing act on her, she hopped over to his closet, hoping to find something to wear for the time being. Katherine sprung open the closet doors and dropped her jaw. It was a walk-in closet that was even bigger than her own. There was a large tie and belt dispenser in the center of the room. The right side was all pants, the left were all shirts while wing-tipped shoes were parked in long shoe rack below. Everything was clean, ironed, organized and a touch too OCD for Katherine's tastes - she never did kick the habit about now leaving your clothes on the floor.

Browsing through his line of shirts, Katherine was becoming more and more impressed with his metrosexual lifestyle. Armani, Prada, Hermes, Burberry. Great in bed and has impeccable taste. She was beginning to think she had hit the jackpot with this one. She threw on a dark red Prada shirt. It reached her knees and pretty much drowned her. Deciding to add a touch of form to it, she pulled a dark belt around it, creating a shirt-dress. She caught herself in the full-length mirror and nodded in approval - her new outfit paired with her wild curly hair made her look savagely chic.

After stopping by the kitchen to grab some water, Katherine went down the hallway, to the living room. Elijah's place had an Edwardian decor to it. Decorative wall mirrors, bookshelves built into the walls, fainting couches, and so on. She found her purse on the couch where she had dropped it the night before. Picking up the gold Alexander McQueen clutch, she threw her hand in and began digging for her phone. A tiny cream envelope fell out along with some lip gloss and a compact mirror. She picked up the items, the letter catching her by surprise. What's this - a love letter? Katherine ripped the envelope with gusto, pulled out the note and read the fine print:

_"Lies and secrets are like a cancer in the soul. They eat away what is good and leave only destruction behind. Be prepared to deal with the aftermath."_

OK. So, not a love letter. Katherine simply shrugged. As far as she was concerned getting bizarre, borderline creepy messages from time to time just proved that you were still relevant. Thinking nothing of it, she shoved the missive back into her purse. She smiled in triumph when she found her iPhone. Unlocking the device, she browsed through her texts. Her inbox was exploding with urgent messages from Stefan, requesting her presence at Salvatore Consolidated. Just typical, she thought, pursing her lips. It would be only after she had snagged some smoking hot creature that Stefan would show some interest.

Catching the time on her digital clock, she suddenly realized that it was well past morning. She had no idea when Elijah would be back, but she couldn't just wait around forever. He could keep the dress - wherever it was - she'd settle with just his shirt. With one parting glance around the apartment, she headed out.

Once she got to the main floor, the doorman opened the glass door for her, his eyes travelled down her form. He gulped at her attire. It certainly wasn't what he was used to seeing among the prissy, prudish set that inhabited the building. Katherine didn't care, she was accustomed to being gawked at - most of the time, she preferred it that way, feeling insulted if no one bothered to take a second look.

As she walked down the street, though, she began to wonder if she had made a mistake by not leaving her number. She wasn't the type to cling on to a man she barely knew, but perhaps, just this once, a goodbye note wouldn't have hurt.

"Katerina." Elijah's voice had her looking up.

"Elijah?" She caught sight of the man conquering her thoughts. He was as suited up as he was last night, holding a shopping bag in one hand and a dry-cleaning cover bag over his shoulder. "Is that-"

"Your dress," he finished. "Yes, I went to have it dry-cleaned this morning and I hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of bringing you some new clothes. I assumed you wouldn't want to wear the dress you had on the night prior."

She blinked in surprise. "That's why you left this morning? To have my clothes cleaned?"

"Yes." There was that intense stare again - the kind that said I see only you and even if the apocalypse were upon us, I'd still refuse to look away. Normally Katherine would be pleased by it, but with Elijah, she just had no idea what she was setting herself up for. "Perhaps I should have left a note."

She wanted to laugh. Elijah was a new kind of man for her. The kind who knew when to listen to a woman and knew when to leer to at her. But more importantly, he seemed like a decent person. What the hell was she supposed to do with one of those? "You realize you didn't have to do that."

"Yes." His eyes slowly observed every inch of her body. Seeing her in his shirt, his belt and high heels made him want to drop his bags and drag her back to his bedroom, caveman-style. "I see that you've improvised."

"Would you rather I had gone naked?"

"Yes," he replied without thinking, but then quickly shook his head. "Assuming, that I'm the only other being around, of course."

"Of course," she winked.

It was enough to make him smile. "Why don't we head back up to my place? You can change and then I can take you out to eat."

"Elijah," she began with a sigh. "You know, you really don't have to do this."

"Do what?"

"This. This!" Katherine moved her hands about. "Buying me morning after clothes, getting me food...though I do like being fed."

"Katerina." Elijah licked his lips, loving the flustered little blush that had begun to appear on her face. "If you do not wish to see me again, I'll leave you be. But I sincerely hope that isn't the case, because I would very much like us to continue this newfound acquaintance."

Katherine thought over his words, trying to figure out if he was asking to be boyfriend/girlfriend.

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Klaus chugged down his third glass of whiskey and started pouring his fourth. He was glad Caroline wasn't around to see this. She always hated it when he drank, saying it brought out the absolute worst in him. She claimed that if she hadn't come around to stop him from over-doing it, he'd have been a full-blown alcoholic by now. Since they had gotten together, he had cut down considerably to the point where he only drank on social occasions. But right now he didn't care that it was barely after 12. He needed this. So, he knocked back his fourth glass before slamming it back onto the table.

He was having the best morning, waking up with Caroline in his arms, her delectable lips trailing all over him. Morning sex had turned into steamy shower sex, followed by breakfast in the kitchen and a grand finale of kitchen table sex. Afterwards, he had helped her get dressed, covering her skin with kisses before pulling fabric over it. He then walked her out so she could get on with her day and he with his. Now that word of their marriage had been made public, they both felt free to enjoy the honeymoon-stage of their marriage and Klaus planned on making the most of every second, knowing he had never been as happy as he was now. It was only when he returned to his study and opened his email that the goofy, satisfied grin on his face disappeared. The last thing he expected to find today was a video message from his younger brother. He hadn't seen Kol in almost a year and although Klaus knew they would cross paths again, he never expected his brother to take one of Caroline's friends hostage. The video didn't say much, only congratulating Klaus on his nuptials, letting him know he had Bonnie tied up somewhere and that he would be in touch within the hour. Thinking on his feet, Klaus had immediately gotten one of his tech experts to trace the IP address on his brother's message, but it was an exercise in futility because Kol covered his tracks.

While he waited for his brother's call, Klaus thought back to how Kol became so estranged from the Mikaelson family, from him. As kids, they were thick and thieves, always playing pranks on people and sneaking out at night to party. But like many siblings, they grew up and grew apart. Klaus eventually stopped with the silly games and the parties in favor of molding his career and making more money. He got into the Wall Street scene and began expanding his financial portfolio at a very young age. Kol, however, kept living out his Peter Pan-complex with raucous parties, drinking, gambling and other forms of debauchery. It wasn't long before he had oozed out all the juice from his trust fund and savings. At the end of his rope and fearing Mikael's wrath if he found out that his son had squandered most of his hard-earned money, Kol accepted Klaus' offer of a loan.

Later, when both brothers sat on the board of Mikaelson Industries, Kol realized that Klaus' loan wasn't just an act of brotherly love - it came with stipulations. As CEO of the company, Klaus expected his brother to fall in line, much like Elijah, and support him during all his buyouts, acquisitions and projects. But much like Klaus, Kol wasn't one to be controlled - he had his own ideas and often butted heads with Klaus in regards to company's future. His brother's insubordination infuriated Klaus to no end and from then on, threats were tossed back and forth between them.

It went on this way for years, until one day the board members at Mikaelson Industries had given Kol the boot. After looking into his criminal record and taking note of the few shady run-ins he had with the law, they declared Kol unfit to be a representative for the company. But Kol knew what really happened. One of the factors leading to Klaus' success was that he always knew everybody's weakness and how to use it against them. It didn't matter if they were friend foe or family, he had made it a point to know what could make people crumble. Kol was positive that Klaus had blackmailed every member of the board to give him the old heave-ho. It was his way of trying neuter Kol and get him in line; he expected Kol to come back begging, with his tail between his legs. When Kol had hired a lawyer to take the matter to court instead, Klaus took things a step further by freezing all his accounts. Giving out the loan had made Klaus his brother's creditor and as his official debt collector, Klaus was able to obtain a court judgment against Kol - locking him out from all his money and assets. Elijah and Rebekah had worryingly watched this feud play out from the background, but neither tried to intervene, knowing it would only end badly. Klaus didn't intend to drive his brother away, he only wanted to make sure Kol knew his place in the family.

He had never expected Kol to just disappear without a trace. Kol was sloppy and not the kind of person who could survive on his own, or so he thought. While a part of Klaus was relieved to find that his brother was alive and well, another part of him feared what he was up to.

His phone rang and an unknown caller appeared on the touchscreen, but Klaus already knew who was on the other end. Taking a deep breath, he answered, "Baby brother. Been far too long. Still wreaking havoc I see?"

"Oh I see you got my little video?" Kol's voice sang out. "I'm only having a bit of fun."

"Well I doubt Ms. Bennett's enjoying your definition of fun. But I'm glad to see you're in good health. The family will be pleased to know you're not dead in a ditch somewhere...yet."

"Nice to know how much you care," Kol said sarcastically. "Let's cut to the chase, Nik."

"Yes. Lets," Klaus said, his voice taking up an edge.

"You can keep that foul company of yours - I no longer want any part of it. But you have 48 hours to give me my money back, plus a year's worth of interest."

"Your money?" Klaus laughed condescendingly. "Are you by chance dealing with a gust of senility at the moment? Because as I recall you spent most of your youth squandering all your money and taking comfort with mine."

"I trusted you, you know? I trusted you to be my brother, but instead you froze me out. You ruined me," Kol sniped back.

"And I trusted you to stand by me, to have my back. Looks like we both were met with nothing but disappointment."

"As much as I'd love for us to talk and weep endless tears over all this, I really haven't the time for it. Like I said, unfreeze my accounts and throw in a grand bonus, and no harm will come to the lady."

"You think I care about what happens to her?" Klaus practically cackled. Apart from Stefan, he loathed Caroline's sanctimonious little friends, especially the Petrova twins and the Bennett girl. Those three witches were always trying to poison Caroline's mind against him. The sooner she ditched them, the better. "Kill her. Toss her off a building. Drown her in a duck pond. It truly makes no difference to me."

"Such cruelty," Kol tsked. "I wonder what Caroline would say, if she could hear you now, sentencing her best friend to death. I guess I'll find out when I call her and tell her of all this. How do you think she'll react when she finds out that her husband could've easily prevented one of her loved ones from being hurt, but chose not to? Or maybe I'll just wait for her reaction when she finds Bonnie's fingers in the mail."

"If you so much as come within two inches of Caroline's presence, I will tear out your liver." Klaus growled, a vein in his neck began to stick out. "You're a fool if you think you can force my hand."

"You're the fool if you really thought I wouldn't use your precious little wife against you. Don't underestimate me, Nik. Remember, this time, you have a weakness."

"You really think you can threaten me and get away with it?!" Klaus screamed.

Kol could hear glass clattering on the other end. "Enough with the temper tantrums, brother. All you have to do is pay up and we can be done with this."

"We're family, baby brother. We're never done," Klaus sneered before hanging up.

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Caroline's text alert went off for what had to be the hundredth time that day. It was yet another text from Stefan, demanding she get her ass over to Salvatore Consolidated. Since when had he become such a phone stalker? His past bromance with Klaus must have left an impression on him because he was certainly starting to act as paranoid as her dear husband.

She had hoped to spend the entire day with Klaus before finishing off some more work for the club, but she was curious to know what had gotten Stefan's undies in a twist. After grabbing a cup of coffee from a cafe near Klaus' building, she started walking a few blocks to her destination.

Anyone who saw her could easily catch the spring in her step, the bounce of her blonde curls, her contagious smile. Caroline couldn't deny it anymore - she was actually grateful that word of her marriage had leaked out, because now it felt like she and Klaus were simply free to be a normal, married couple doing normal married things and of course, they could continue to do those not-so-normal, kinky doesn't-matter-if-you're-married-or-not things. She loved having him by her side at events like last night. She loved wearing his ring and seeing a wedding band on Klaus' finger just gave him an upgrade on the hotness scale. Mostly, she was just loving being married to him. Now, if only she could work out the matter of her family and his psycho family. Caroline tried to push those thoughts away for now. Positive energy, she said to herself. Think positive thoughts.

Their families were impossible, especially his. But at least their friends had come around. Klaus didn't have many friends, but the few he had, like Marcel, simply adored her. As for her friends - Stefan merely smirked when he heard the news, only surprised that it had taken them this long to shack up. Bonnie and Matt seemed less displeased and more concerned with her choice of husband, but still accepted it, knowing it was her choice to make. Katherine, after getting over the initial shock of her friend marrying the devil incarnate himself, was mostly just curious as to how he was in bed. And then there was Elena.

Caroline was sure Elena would have a few choice words to say about her nuptials last night at the club, but remarkably the brunette had only hugged her friend and wished her the best. Caroline didn't know what had went down between Damon and Elena before she barged in on them, but she got the feeling that whatever it was - it had drained most of the fight out of Elena, at least for that night. Truth be told, Elena didn't believe Klaus and Caroline had a snowball's chance in hell of lasting, but Caroline didn't need to know that. So, she embraced her friend and told her that under no circumstances was she allowed to continue criticizing her relationship with Damon nor was she allowed to do cartwheels every time something awful happened in her relationship. Caroline agreed. She didn't mind really - she could just do back flips instead, but Elena didn't need to know that.

The skip in her step came to abrupt stop when she neared the Montana building. It was a posh address, a tall building with an old-world flare and distinguished residents. But what made her stop was the sight of one of those distinguished residents sucking face with her roommate by the front entrance. Walking closer to the pair, she cleared her throat loudly. The man was the first to pull away, his eyes expanding a bit when he saw Caroline.

"Caroline," Elijah practically stuttered, caught off guard with her presence. He stayed close to Katherine, but stood up a bit straighter, adjusting his tie. "Good morning."

"Good _afternoon_, Elijah," Caroline said in a sugary voice, laced with amusement. She arched her eyebrows at Katherine, who flashed her infamous smile in return.

"What can I say?" Katherine rasped, smacking her lips together. "I snagged the other brother."

Caroline simply shook her head at her friend's antics. She wasn't too fond of Elijah, but she could tolerate him more than Rebekah. Without a further glance at her brother-in-law, Caroline linked her arm with Katherine's and pulled the model away from the lawyer. Katherine didn't protest as she followed Caroline down the street. After a few steps, she whipped her head around for a moment to address Elijah. "Keep the dress. I'll be back for it later."

Turning back to Caroline, she asked gleefully, "Want all the details?"

"Yes. But first let me just say this."

Katherine, waited, unsure of what she was about to hear.

"Whatever happened, will happen and/or continue to happen. I'm the one who gets to tell their sister," Caroline declared.

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Kol delicately placed the ice-pack near his right eye, using his left eye to glare at the woman. "I bring you food and sustenance and this is how you repay me."

"My apologies, but I guess being held hostage tends to diminish the appetite," Bonnie hissed, struggling a little against her new restraints.

Kol had made of the mistake of thinking this could work out peacefully. He fully intended to let Bonnie go as soon as soon as a certain someone met his demands. He had even said as much to Bonnie before untying her. Knowing she wouldn't be comfortable in her dress, so he gave her some of his clothes and told her to help herself to some food. He then locked up the loft and left her alone so he could make a call to his brother.

Bonnie had quickly changed into his trackies, flip flops and a large Ramones t-shirt. Her mind was instantly planning out an escape route. Unfortunately, the place had no windows and there only seemed to be one exit. There were also no available weapons in sight. The table was far too big for her to lift and drop on his face. Her kidnapper had taken his phone and tablet. But he also had left his laptop. The device was locked so she couldn't use it to contact anyone for help, but she figured it could still come to some use. Bonnie had shut the lights and waited for the man to return. When he finally did, she sprung up on him and tried to hit him over the head with his MAC. He was a lot taller than she was, so it didn't quite work out as planned. They had scuffled in the dark for a bit before she managed to sock him right in the eye. He was caught off guard and slightly impressed with her furious left hook. Who knew such a tiny fist could pack such a hard punch? It gave her a few seconds to head for the door, but Kol caught her in time and brought her back to the chair she had woken up in. He let her scream everything out, knowing no one could hear her anyway, and continued to tie her up again. If it were anyone else he would have roughened them up a bit first, but he couldn't do that to Bonnie.

Kol hated how difficult she was making this, but even moreso, he hated the looks she was giving him. Many women had given him those looks before, those of disgust and hate, but it didn't hurt until it came from the one he fancied. He really didn't want to bring Bonnie into all of this. Dancing with her last night felt like heaven, he felt safe and happy for the first time in a long time. But he scolded himself for it later. He shouldn't have danced with her; he shouldn't have even spoken to her. Bumping into her was actually nothing more than a fortunate and unfortunate coincidence. She had only distracted him from his plan. If he hadn't spent so much time with her last night, he could have payed more attention to Caroline's whereabouts. But as luck would have it, Klaus was by his wife's side the entire night and by the time Kol managed to slip away from Bonnie, the couple was out of sight completely. Thierry was also MIA by then; wherever he was now, Kol would make sure he was dealt with accordingly - but that would have to wait until later.

A part of him wished he could actually be Ken Addams for Bonnie - just a normal Joe Schmoe who wanted to take a beautiful girl out. He was sure Bonnie wouldn't want anything to do with him after all this, but he assumed it would never have worked out anyway. Not even if they had gotten together under less hostile circumstances. Kol had learned his lesson about having weaknesses around. Caring about people, no matter who they were, was a weakness.

"Who were you talking to outside?" She asked, pulling him away from his thoughts. He wouldn't tell her his name or who he was, but she was hoping he would give something away.

"Someone who has what I want." He sighed, setting the ice bag down. "As soon as I hear back from him, I'm sure you'll be free to leave."

"Was it my father? Is this some sort of ransom set-up?" Bonnie's dad was no longer mayor, having stepped down from office years ago, but her family still ran an important enough company for people to target.

"No. I'm sorry, but like I said before, this really doesn't concern you. You're just collateral damage."

"And you're just a monster."

Kol's face looked pained for a moment and not because of his black eye. "Don't be so quick to judge, darling. I'd say you have yet to meet your share of monsters."

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"It's about damn time," Stefan barked. He didn't look like his usual self. His clothes were slightly wrinkled, he had stress lines all across his forehead and most importantly, his hair was a complete mess. This was all very un-Stefan of him. "Didn't you get any of my messages?"

"Yes, Stefan. I did. And for the record, one voicemail is just as effective as nine," Caroline sassed.

"Don't you give me any of that," Stefan warned, wagging a finger at her. "You have no idea what I've had to deal with this morning." He cleared his access card through the metal bar and began escorting Caroline and Katherine up towards his office.

"Maybe we'd have a clue, if you saw fit to tell us what the hell is going on that's got you all unhot and bothered," she continued, not caring for Stefan's tone. Katherine simply watched the show that was starting to play out. Stefan and Caroline were very close friends and it wasn't every day that you caught them hashing it out, so she was enjoying it while it lasted.

"Did you two by chance get a peculiar little note this morning? One that was possibly given to you last night at Perduto?"

"Yes," they both replied. The two ladies walked faster to keep up with Stefan's longer strides.

"Well so did the rest of us." He swung open the door to his office where Matt, Damon and Elena all stood, looking back at them.

"This is why I left a hot piece of ass earlier. To spend my day with you tools," Katherine crossed her arms, unimpressed.

"No sweetie," Damon mocked. "This is why."

Damon and Elena moved to the right and Matt shifted over to the left so that Caroline and Katherine could finally see what all the fuss was about. There, sitting in Stefan's chair was Tessa Bennett, gagged and tied up with a letter pinned to her dress.

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**A/N - So what'd you think?**

****The line "Lies and secrets...are like a cancer in the soul. They eat away what is good and leave only destruction behind" is from Cassandra Clare's ****_Clockwork Prince_****.**

**Klaus line about family never being done was inspired by the scene between Eli and Olivia Pope in ****_Scandal, Season 3_****. I love ****_Scandal_****, so you might see some more references to that show in future chapters.**

**Elijah's home is in a building called Montana. If there are any ****_Frasier_**** fans out there, you'll know this was the name of Niles Crane's home. I always pictured Elijah would live in a place that was designed like Niles' place - fancy, old-world and pretentious.**

**Please review! I love hearing what you guys have to say, good or bad, plus reviews always encourage me to keep updating :).**


	8. Chapter 5

"I love a good party as much as the next gal, but couldn't we have at least waited a few days before the next one."

"Party?!" Stefan pointed to Tessa, who was currently tied down to his chair with a gag around her mouth. She was wide awake and glaring daggers at everyone in the room. "Katherine, somebody kidnapped her and left her in my office."

"Yeah, that explains why she's still tied up," Katherine muttered dryly, taking a slow sip of Caroline's coffee. "So, I take it we all got the same little threatening notes then? How quaint."

Stefan took off the letter pinned to Tessa's dress. "Yes, she approached all of us at some point at the club. I think she may be the one who sent them to us."

He handed the note to Caroline. Katherine leaned in to read along. It wasn't so much a letter, but a list of all their families.

_Bennett_  
_Forbes_  
_Lockwood_  
_Petrova_  
_Salvatore_

"OK, say she is blackmailing us. She wouldn't have tied herself up and left her ass here for someone to find her." Katherine crossed her arms and looked at the group. "Which one of you did it?"

Stefan looked at her incredulously. "Don't be ridiculous. Why the hell would any of us kidnap Bonnie's cousin?"

"Speaking of Bonnie," Elena piped up, looking at Caroline. "You wouldn't happen to know where she is?"

Matt's eyes grew even more concerned as Caroline shook her head no. "I dropped her at your place last night because she didn't want to go back to hers."

"So she's probably there right now," Caroline said.

"No, she's not," Matt shook his head. "Damon, Elena and I went by earlier before we came here. There was no one in and she's not returning any of our messages."

"Hold it. Before we go any further, has anyone even thought to question her?" Caroline asked, pointing her pinky finger at Tessa. The room went silent. Caroline sighed. Taking a seat on Stefan's desk, she reached over to pull down the piece of cloth over Tessa's mouth. "Hi there. Did you give us the notes? Are you blackmailing us?"

Tessa took a moment to breathe through her mouth. "Yes!" she spat.

"She's blackmailing us," Caroline nodded back at her friends before returning her attention to Tessa. "Who kidnapped you?"

"Gee, well right about now, you numbnuts are holing me captive, so I have to say YOU!" She yelled. "Honestly, you people are the biggest idiots this side of the hemisphere. I'm so glad I'm blackmailing you-"

"Ok, time to put the gag back on," Caroline declared, pulling the cloth over Tessa's mouth once more.

"This list has Bennett on it. Why would she be blackmailing one of her own?" Elena asked.

Caroline thought it over and shrugged. "It's not like she and Bonnie are very close."

"It's not just Bonnie, it's her entire family, along with all of our families," Damon asserted, taking another glance at the list. "Notice how the list only has last names. Even Donovan got a note, but the list still reads Lockwood. I'm guessing it's not just us this little newspaperwoman has dirt on."

Matt's mind immediately went to Tyler, wondering if his foster brother also received a message.

"It certainly wouldn't be the first time someone's tried to take down my family or any of ours. But why would she want to take down hers?" Elena inquired.

"It's not an unlikely possibility," Damon shrugged. "Straying from the family, turning your back on your own flesh and blood. It happens." He and Stefan shared a pointed look that didn't go unnoticed from the others.

"It makes more sense if she's after our families," Stefan nodded. "Each of us on our own probably have things we want to stay hidden, but I'm assuming it's nothing compared to the skeletons lying around in our family's closets."

"Sins of the father and all that jazz," Damon grumbled.

"But if that's the case, why give us the notes?" Matt asked. "Why not go directly to our folks?"

"Because the best way to go after someone is to go through their weakness," Caroline said in a hushed tone, thinking back to what Klaus had once told her. "When it comes to our parents, that's us."

Elena bit her lip worriedly. "So, say she's got stuff on all of our families. Why would someone just take our blackmailer and offer her to us on a plate?"

Everyone stayed quiet as they thought over what was happening.

"What about the security footage?" Caroline asked Stefan.

Stefan shook his head. "I already checked. Someone's tampered with it." He pulled out his tablet and held up the screen. It showed Stefan's room empty for several seconds before a tied-up reporter popped up like magic. "It's the same with all the entrances and back exits. There isn't any recording of anyone coming or leaving the building since last night."

"Well if we're thinking of possible kidnappers, my money's on a little lawyer who's suspiciously absent from this little get-together," Katherine harped.

Everyone looked at Katherine disbelievingly. Elena narrowed her eyes at her sister. "You can't possibly tell me you think Bonnie did this?"

"Why not? She's related to the person who's blackmailing us and she's the only one among us who's suddenly MIA," Katherine explained her reasoning.

"I don't know why she's not here, but I'm sure there's a logical reason behind it," Elena chided, "Bonnie didn't do this. She's a lawyer for pete's sake. She's the last person who's going to condone illegal behavior such as kidnapping."

"I'm just telling it like I see it. Heaven forbid, I say something against one of your holier-than-thou friends." Katherine rolled her eyes.

Caroline exhaled loudly. "Can we all just come to an agreement that none of us, Bonnie included, kidnapped her?"

Once everyone had finally nodded, she stood up from Stefan's desk and headed for the door. "We need to make a plan. But it's probably best not to do it here in front of her."

"Let's talk in the lounge," Stefan agreed.

"Wait," Caroline stopped, pausing at the door. She looked back at the others. "One of us needs to stay here with her. Now that we know she's got dirt on us, we can't have her pulling any vanishing acts."

"I'll stay," Matt volunteered. After everyone left, he shut the door and sighed exhaustively. As much as he loved his foster family, he felt like he had gotten into one insane escapade after the next since becoming a fixture in the Lockwood household.

"We need to get her to talk. Tell us who kidnapped her and find out what she's got on us," Caroline said once they were all sitting in the lounge.

"Why should we believe a word she has to say?" Damon protested. "She supposedly has dirt on all of us and we don't even know what that is. We can't trust her to tell us the truth. She'll just lie."

"Yes, but what other choice do we have?" Elena asked, putting a gentle hand on his arm. "All we know right now is that someone's after us and she's all we've got to lead with."

"She's a journalist for the Daily News," Caroline noted. "Maybe we can get access to her work files."

"You mean by hacking in? How do we propose we do that?" Stefan asked.

"You know a guy who knows a guy," Caroline said knowingly.

"Lexi," Stefan whispered. She definitely did know people, especially in her line of work.

"Does anyone know where she lives?" Damon asked.

"Bonnie might know," Elena replied.

"Bonnie who's not here," said Katherine.

"Would you quit griping on about that?" Damon snarled. "It wasn't her. Bonnie Bennett doesn't have it in her to pull off this madness. Unlike some people we know."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know, but this all does feel a tad too familiar. Anyone else care to take a scroll down history lane? Back when a big ole' wolf came into town and threatened to huff and puff all our houses down-"

"Now wait a minute," Caroline snapped, rising to her feet. "If you're implying that Klaus-"

"I'm not implying. I'm saying it straight out," Damon barked back. Pushing Elena's hand away, he got up and into Caroline's space. "Need I remind you that it wasn't so long along that your darling hubby tried to put all of our families six feet under? Or has wedded bliss killed off the last of your brain cells?"

"That was over five years ago. Things have changed! He wouldn't do that to me."

"How do you know? He was so determined to take us all down back then. He couldn't have just given it all up. Maybe he's just been biding his time. Maybe that's why he married you to-"

Damon never got a chance to complete his sentence. His head snapped to one side and his cheek began to turn a distinctive shade of red. He felt a growing sting accompanied by a cut of skin. Caroline was always great at bitch slapping, but it had multiplied tenfold thanks to the large wedding ring she was wearing.

Elena gasped. Stefan groaned. And Katherine just laughed.

Knowing it was best to step in, Stefan pulled Caroline behind him and addressed Damon. "Look, whoever's doing this - it's not Klaus. I wouldn't put it past him to still be after us, but there's no way he'd ever put Caroline in danger. If this was his grand scheme, he would make sure to keep her out of it."

Caroline took a few deep breaths, trying to regain her cool. Damon rubbed his cheek as he sat back down.

Stefan raked a hand through his hair nervously. "We also need to think about where to take her."

"Take her?" Katherine raised a brow.

"We can only keep her here for another day. Staff and cleaning crew come back first thing Monday morning."

"Well, I'll leave it to you to figure that out, Stefan," Caroline said, grabbing her purse from the coffee table. "In the meantime, I'm going back to Perduto to check out the security footage. Tessa's wearing the same thing she had on last night."

"Meaning she could have been taken at the club," Stefan nodded in understanding. "But how do we know that footage hasn't been swiped too?"

"I guess we'll find out," she shrugged. "We should also work out schedule so we can all take turns...babysitting our blackmailer."

"You must be joking," Katherine groused.

"We can't leave her alone. Someone took her once, they can take her again. And we can't risk that, at least not until we find out what she has over our heads," Caroline insisted.

"Wait a minute." Elena held up her hands. "Are we seriously going to just keep holding her hostage? What next - are we going to have to torture and interrogate her as well?"

Caroline understood where Elena was coming from, but they were left with very few options. "If we let her go, not only will she follow through with her plan to ruin every one of us, but she could go to the cops and accuse us all of kidnapping."

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but Barbie's right. We can't let her go," Damon grumbled. "I'll kick things off and keep watch on the hack."

"I'll contact Lexi about getting someone to access Tessa's email and files," Stefan said. "Maybe she can even help me find a way to transport Tessa to more discreet location. Wherever we take her, it'll have to be somewhere only we have access to."

Elena sighed, wondering just when precisely in the last 24 hours had her life turned so topsy-turvy. "Ok, I'm going to keep trying to get a hold of Bonnie and I'm sure Matt will be reaching out to Tyler soon."

"Tyler?" Caroline squeaked at the mention of her ex-husband.

"Yes. His family's name was on the list, so there's a chance he might have gotten one of those letters as well," Elena explained.

"We'll all have to get in touch with our families too - see if anything's off with our parents, if they've been receiving any threats lately. But don't be obvious about it. If they haven't been targeted, we don't need them to start panicking about us," Stefan stated. Everyone nodded in agreement. Damon and Elena walked back to Stefan's office to relay the happenings to Matt.

Caroline started towards the elevators but Stefan held her arm back lightly. "Caroline wait. Take Katherine with you. I don't want you heading off alone right now."

"Always so over-protective," she sighed. "You sound like Klaus."

"Are you going to tell him?"

"Are you insane? Hell no. He'd go berserk if he knew." Klaus was already far too defensive where she was concerned. Caroline was sure that if Klaus found out she was being blackmailed, he wouldn't hesitate to try and lock her up like a princess in a tower. Not to mention, she and Klaus were finally in a good place - it was almost too good to be true and she wasn't about to ruin any of that by bringing this mess into their marriage.

"So what are you going to tell him?"

"Nothing."

"He's going to find out."

"No he's not. Because nobody is going to tell him any thing. You got that?"

Stefan frowned. "Lies and secrets, what a magical way to kick-start a marriage."

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Klaus stared blankly at the empty bottle of whiskey in his hand. He had given up on pouring it into a glass hours ago and had settled from drinking straight from the source.

After he had hung up on Kol earlier, he had sent in extra guards to look after Caroline and give him updates about her whereabouts. At the moment, they were staking outside of Salvatore Consolidated, watching Caroline enter the building with Katherine.

Klaus had had people watching Caroline for years now, partly for her safety and partly because he wanted to know where she was and who she was with at all times. She didn't know any of this, of course. He wasn't sure he'd make it out alive if she ever found out. This time, he had to upgrade the security. He wasn't going to give Kol any opportunity to hurt her just to get back at him. He cursed his brother for putting him through this.

When Kol had left so many months ago, Klaus didn't put too much effort into looking for his younger brother. He figured Kol would return to the family eventually - for some reason it went past him that he might come back with a vengeance. Klaus knew Elijah had spent many months searching for him, but he also knew Elijah would ultimately fail. For all his good intentions, Elijah simply didn't know Kol the way Klaus did. Elijah had quickly written off most of Kol's friends as useless and unrefined, eventually coming to the point where he simply ignored most of the people in his little brother's life. Klaus, on the other hand, had always made it a point to know who the people around him - be they family, allies or enemies - were close to. People, after all, made the best leverage.

Klaus' mind was now working on over-drive, reflecting back on everyone Kol had ever been in contact with. Kol wasn't just acting on his own. He wasn't smart enough nor did he have the money to work independently. Someone had to be helping him. Kol had plenty of underworld contacts, but there was no way any of them would help him, not without a price. They were also terrified of Klaus and wouldn't dare go against him. Then there was a roster of women that Kol had casual relations with, but Klaus knew his brother wouldn't trust any of them with a matter of importance. That narrowed down the list to a grand total of three genuine friends Kol had accumulated over the years, which was unsurprisingly more than Klaus had.

As he mulled over the three options in his head, Klaus thought back to an earlier conversation with his tech analyst - the woman had looked into the e-mail address from which Kol had sent video footage of a captive Bonnie and into his phone number, but found both to be utterly untraceable. So unless Kol suddenly became a wizard in computer technology, he had to have someone with top-notch social engineering skills. As far as he knew, Kol had only one friend who had a talent for hacking, forgery and causing electronic nuisances. Just one.

Grabbing his phone, Klaus quickly called up one of his men.

"Boss?" The man on the other end answered.

"Seek out a Mr. Alec Hardison. He used to be head of electronics at Leverage Consulting & Associates. Maybe he still is. Find him and make him lead you to my brother."

"Yes sir."

"I want my dear brother unharmed. But don't bring him here, take him out of the city, to my family's estate," Klaus instructed.

"And the girl sir?"

Klaus stayed silent on the line.

"The one he took?" The man continued.

"Yes, I know," Klaus said sternly. "Get rid of her."

"Very well sir."

"Keep me posted." Klaus shoved the device back into his pocket and walked over the large glass window leading to a view of the city. The sun was gone and everything was greyscale. Clouds were hustling about, jazzed up for a storm.

Klaus looked down at the city from his penthouse suite. He thought of his wife. Caroline would surely never forgive him if she were to find out that he didn't help Bonnie. But if Bonnie now knew that Kol was his brother, she would surely report the identity of her kidnapper back to her friends and then Caroline would hate him anyway. Better to be done with the young Bennett then have her cause a rift between he and his wife. Caroline would be upset over her friend's disappearance at first, but eventually she'd move on. She'd make new friends.

Whatever happened, Klaus wasn't about to give Caroline any reason to up and leave him. Not when they had finally found perfection with each other. Maybe it was a temporary state of perfection that only came with being newly weds, but Klaus was determined to make it last for as long as he could.

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Caroline yawned. It wasn't even very late by the time she made it back to Klaus' building but she was already burnt out. Searching through her club's security footage was a long, drawn out process and in the end, she and Katherine couldn't even find a single trace of Tessa exiting the club or being taken by someone. She couldn't have vanished out of thin air and reappeared in Stefan's office, Caroline reasoned, so it was likely that someone had edited the footage, much like they did at Salvatore Consolidated. As if being blackmailed wasn't enough, Bonnie was still nowhere to be found and Tessa was still not talking - cursing them all to hell, sure - but certainly not spitting out any useful information. Then there was the goosebumps she kept getting throughout the day. She was constantly looking over her shoulder, feeling as though someone was watching her. And to top it all off, Tyler was actually in the city. Matt had called his brother, assuming Tyler would still be back in San Francisco. Turns out, he had been here for the past two days, visiting his Uncle Mason. It appeared that he too had received an ominous note, but like most of them had thought nothing of it. At least not until Matt had brought him up to speed about their new hostage situation. Caroline wheezed out a groan; she didn't know how she was going to handle that reunion.

She caught her reflection in the elevator mirror and combed a hand through her semi-wet hair - the rain had frizzed out her curls a tad. After a few seconds, she gave up and stepped out of the elevator. Her untamed hair was the least of her problems. It wasn't like Klaus would care; he usually preferred seeing her feathers all ruffled up. She sighed as she thought of him. How did one entire day go to bust? It was just this morning she was blissfully happy with her husband.

Closing the door behind her, she toddled slowly into the living room where she found Klaus lying back on the sofa. His eyes met hers and they exchanged a brief smile. Without saying a word, she removed her shoes and glided on top of him, resting her body against his. He immediately wrapped his arms around her, breathing in her scent - it was a mixture of her berries, cream and fresh rain. She exhaled and relaxed above him, taking comfort in knowing she could at least always come home to this from now on.

"Rough day, love?"

"It's better now," she murmured into his shirt. She looked up at him and brought her lips to his in a sweet, short kiss. He opened his mouth to lengthen it and it was only then that she took note of the scent of whiskey on him. "You've been drinking?" She asked, pulling back.

"Marcel swung by and we had a few drinks is all." It wasn't an entire lie. He had met up with Marcel earlier and requested he have his men be on the look out for Kol as well.

Caroline frowned. She thought the world of Marcel, but she hated how he and Klaus turned into the drunken buffoons in each other's company. It was like a bonding ritual with them.

"What did our dear Mr. Salvatore require you for this afternoon?" He asked, knowing she despised his drinking habits and hoping to stray her mind from further questioning.

"A business venture. He's bored. He wants to start something new, away from Salvatore Consolidated and he asked me for help." It was partly true. That had been what Stefan needed from her not too long ago. It just wasn't the purpose of today's visit. Caroline laid her head back down on his chest and listened to his heartbeat. It wasn't the first lie she had ever told him, but it was the first one in their marriage and a part of her felt like the paradise they had created was slowly beginning to drift away.

"What does he plan on doing? Become a spokesperson for a new line of male hair care products." Klaus scoffed a bit. "Pity his brother beat him to that."

"Don't be jealous. You've got pretty hair too." Caroline ran her fingers around his short dirty blonde curls.

Klaus sighed happily, leaning into her hand as her fingers tickled the hair behind his ears. Caroline giggled at the sight of him. Where most people saw a big bad wolf, all she could see was a cute little puppy. She told him as much and squealed in delight as he flipped her underneath him and began tickling her sides.

"Stop," she laughed. "Stop, stop. You're not playing fair." He knew how ticklish she was.

"Playing fair isn't my style, sweetheart. You should know that by now." His fingers stopped the torture, deciding instead to unbutton and remove her blouse. He drank in the sight of her in a silky, baby blue bra and placed kisses on the top of her breasts.

Caroline looked over his shoulder at the window and caught a whip of lightening. "Looks like a thunderstorm."

"I've grown quite fond of them," Klaus said, sliding a hand up her skirt.

"Why? They're scary."

"But they make you horny, much like myself," he grinned when he felt how wet she was.

"Shut up." Caroline smacked his shoulder lightly. He simply smiled and dropped his face to her neck.

"I missed you, love," he murmurred into her skin.

"Good," she moaned, smiling wickedly. She looked a bit too smug for his liking. He would have to do something about that, he reasoned, as he scooped her into his arms and carried her to the bedroom while the thunder continued to roar outside.

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Kol locked the large garage door behind him and headed back towards the black Audi. He really loved this car. But it was stolen, much like half the credit cards in his wallet, and if it was one thing he learned the past year, it was that you never hung on to stolen goods. You made what use you could of them and discarded them before it could be traced back to you. It was a huge step down from the way high-class lifestyle he had grown up with, but it was his life now - at least until Klaus caved in with the money.

He slid a hand through the car's fine exterior. He'd have to remove any trace of his fingerprints and possessions before deserting the vehicle. But then he thought of Bonnie and decided maybe it could wait until after dinner. Kol opened the passenger door and grabbed the takeaway he had ordered for them. Uninterested in returning to another escape stunt or another sucker punch, Kol had left Bonnie tied up while he went to grab some Thai food. He had seen her and Caroline order it enough times to know it was one of her favourite cuisines. He doubted bringing food would make her hate him any less, but she had refused the breakfast he brought her earlier in the day and she'd have to eat eventually.

Just as he was about to shut the door, he heard a familiar ringtone go off from within Bonnie's purse. It was on her person when he grabbed her at Caroline's apartment. Knowing that she probably kept her phone in it, Kol had brought it along and left it in the car. Putting aside the bag of food, Kol reached for her purse and fished out the device. Her friends had been calling and sending her messages all day. Good thing he left it here or she would have surely used it to her advantage. He shut the device off and began pushing it back into her clutch when he noticed a small cream envelope sticking out. The envelope had Bonnie's last name written on it and appeared unopened. Shrugging and without a second thought, he ripped it open and shook out the note.

_"Lies and secrets are like a cancer in the soul. They eat away what is good and leave only destruction behind. Be prepared to deal with the aftermath."_

Kol arched an eyebrow, wondering who the hell could have sent this to her. His own device started to buzz in his pocket. He glanced at the ID and answered immediately. "How goes it mate?"

"Found something interesting about your boy Thierry," Hardison said on the other line.

Kol's eyes instantly narrowed. He hadn't forgotten how that incompetent fool had disregarded his threats and fled the scene without explanation that night. "I'm listening."

"He didn't exactly just disappear into thin air."

"Unfortunately, people rarely do." Kol could hear his friend typing something away at a blazing speed in the background.

"I'm sending you a video."

Kol grabbed his tablet from the backseat. After Bonnie annilated his laptop, he figured it was best to keep his devices out of reach. Going into his inbox, Kol pulled up Hardison's email. "What am I looking at here?"

"Security detail, just outside Perduto. I went into their Wi-Fi cam to edit you out of last night's events, only to find another unknown footprint in the system."

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning someone was hacking into the club's security before I was, making their own edits," Hardison explained.

"Who?" Kol kept his eyes on the screen. He watched Thierry and a woman step outside the back alley.

"I don't know, but I managed to retrieve some of the footage they had stolen. You'll want to see this."

Kol's gaze was glued to the screen where a black SUV had pulled up. Two men had stepped out. One shot Thierry and the other one grabbed the woman.

"Who the hell are these people?" Kol asked, completely baffled by what was going on.

"No idea."

"Can you find out?"

"I might be able to zoom in and put them through my facial recognition software, but that's going to take a bit of time and I have clients to take this week, Kol. Paying clients," Hardison clarified.

Kol understood. He was already asking too much from his tech wizard pal. He knew Hardison was helping him out of friendship, but the man also had to work and make a living for himself. It felt both strange and comforting to Kol to know he had someone who was on his side and didn't want anything in return. He couldn't even say the same for his own family.

"I get it. Don't worry about it. Looks like this is Thierry's problem anyway. It's got nothing to do with me."

"Maybe. But here's the thing - that woman they took. I recognize her face. That's Tessa Bennett. She's a columnist for the Daily News."

"Bennett? As in -"

"As in related to the girl you're holding hostage."

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Bonnie let out a long yawn as she sat tied down to the chair. Being kidnapped sure was tiring. She wondered when her kidnapper would return and then cursed at the thought of him. It hadn't even been an entire day and Bonnie was already becoming sick of him and the situation he had put her in. She didn't understand how she could have been so wrong about him. Bonnie usually prided herself in being a good judge of character and years of law school had trained her further on reading people and their intentions. So why did she foolishly believe he was being genuine that night at the club? How could she have not seen him for what he was?

She shook her doubts off. It didn't matter if she missed it before. She was seeing things clearly enough now and once she got out of here, she was going to take him down with the full extent of the law behind her.

The large door clunked open. Kol passed through with a large takeaway bag in one hand and a small envelope in the other. "Brought us dinner. Plastic cutlery only of course. I'll remove the restraints on your hands but the other ones are staying," he informed her, smiling a little at the scowl on her face. "Come now, you're going to have to keep up your energy if you plan on socking me again."

"Well that black eye of yours does look a bit lonely," she snarked.

Bonnie's mouth practically watered at the smell of Thai takeaway. She had rejected his earlier offer of breakfast, her mind too consumed with thoughts of escape to feel any hunger. But with the night upon them and no possible escape route in sight, her stomach had finally spoken up. She was starving.

Kol placed the food in the kitchen counter and pulled up a chair opposite to hers. "But first things first," he sat down and twirled the envelope around his fingers. Her eyes went straight to the letter and she saw that it had her last name on it. "I regret to say that on top of being kidnapped, it appears you're also being  
blackmailed."

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Klaus sat in the dark as the storm outside dragged out. The thunder reflecting against the window had brought in some light, but the room was mostly dim. His vision moved over to the figure next to the window. The man stepped forward, half his face and body covered in darkness, the other illuminated by the thunder. "Hello Niklaus."

Klaus' jaw clenched instinctively. "Hello Mikael."

"Haven't seen you for months now. Where have you been hiding?" Mikael crept closer, his wing-tipped shoes somehow failing to make any noise. "I've missed our little chats."

"I've been busy," Klaus replied tightly. He settled his hands by sides, willing them to stop shaking.

"Yes, destroying my family's good name and company seems to keep you occupied enough, but it's aging you terribly. I daresay it won't be long until the flesh reflects the madness within." Mikael picked up a bottle of scotch and took a glance at the label. "Oh how fitting. The Macallan, 1939. Adequate but hardly anything extraordinary. Much like you, my boy."

"If you don't like the way I'm running things, why don't you come back and show me how it's done?" Klaus tutted. "Oh that's right. You can't."

Mikael calmly cut his eyes and smirked down at his late wife's illegitimate son. "What was once mine may be yours, but never forget - it's still mine."

Klaus parted his mouth to respond, but Mikael was already walking away. Klaus went up the stairs after him, searching room to room. He froze when he found Mikael in his bedroom, standing above a sleeping Caroline. She was breathing lightly, her body covered only in a sheet. With her pale features and bright hair, she was practically the only source of light in the room.

"What's this?" Mikael reached out and touched Caroline's curls. His fingers strayed down to grasp her left hand where he observed the yellow diamond. "An act of impulse, I take it?"

Watching the man's hands on his wife made Klaus want to throw Mikael through a wall. But he couldn't find it in himself to move from the doorway. His mind kept telling him to do something, but his body was practically a standing corpse with eyes wide open.

"You always were far too impulsive. It's what keeps you from truly being great," Mikael commented, his hands slowly moving down the black satin sheet, pulling it just below Caroline's breasts. Caroline continued to sleep, utterly unaware of what was happening around her. "These sort of women, they always look so beautiful in the beginning don't they? It's only until they crawl into your bed late one night, up the duff with another man's spawn that you see the real deal."

"Enough Mikael," Klaus barked, fed up with the sight of Mikael in his bedroom where his wife slept, reminiscing about the betrayals of his mother that had led to his birth. "Leave. Now."

Mikael finally moved away from her sleeping form and gazed back at Klaus. "I'm going to enjoy watching this."

"What?"

"Watching you lose everything - my company, my children," Mikael paused a moment to point a finger back at Caroline, "Her."

"You won't be watching anything." Klaus spat, still standing frozen at the same spot. "You can no longer touch me. You're nothing but ashes now, remember?"

Mikael's smile grew sinister. "Then why am I still in your head, _son_?"

Klaus' eyes shot up as he woke up and returned to the land of the living. He was lying in bed with a sheet of cold sweat layering his skin. He looked beside him to find Caroline snoozing peacefully with her hands tucked under her head. He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close to him as he tried to even out his breathing. She shifted a bit in her sleep, but eventually settled herself on top of him with her head on his chest. As he lied awake with Caroline in his arms, Klaus gazed up at the ceiling and wondered why thoughts of his deceased pseudo-father were beginning to resurface in his head.

**A/N - Let me know what you guys think! As always I appreciate reading your reviews :) - it gives me further incentive to keep on with the story. **


	9. Chapter 6, Part 1

4:33 a.m.

"I think I'm being followed." Caroline gripped the steering wheel, willing her hands to stop shaking.

"What? By who?" Stefan's voice boomed out from the speaker of her smartphone.

"There's a black hybrid that keeps tailing me. I didn't notice it at first but now..." Words faded on her as she looked back at the black car from her rear-view mirror.

"Can you get a look at who's behind the wheel?"

"Not really. They're not that close. There's two of them. Both men I think. They've been on me for the past few blocks."

"Turn back, Care," Stefan instructed. "Go straight back to Klaus' place. At least you'll be safe there. The guy's got more security than the Queen."

"It's probably for the best. Whoever it is, I don't want to lead them back to your location," Caroline said worriedly. "But what about you and Katherine. You two have been looking after Tessa all night."

"Don't worry about that. Matt will be here soon. He can take over. I got to go deal with something first. Stay on the line."

Stefan handed over the phone to Katherine. "Caroline says she's being followed. Stay with her until she's safely back at Klaus' penthouse. I have to step out for a few minutes, but I'll be right back. Don't hang up on her until you know for sure she made it there."

Katherine took the phone and walked over to the other end of the large room to calm her friend. Stefan began to head over to the door. He knocked his head back when he heard Tessa's voice.

"So caring and protective," Tessa said blandly. She was sitting in the middle of the room, still tied up. "I can see how you manage to bring all the girls to your yard."

"I'm really starting to regret ungagging you." Stefan shook his head and slammed the door behind him. After getting a van, Stefan had decided to precautiously transport Tessa to a building he had once bought years ago in the hopes of starting his own publishing firm. Those hopes quickly died down once his father turned ill and requested Stefan learn more about the family business. The building was only two stories, but it was a large enclave that resided just off the Upper West Side. The first floor was a warehouse and upstairs was a loft. It wasn't really decorated, but it was large enough and the walls were thick enough to contain the blackmailer they were holding captive.

Stefan went down the hall to find Lexi leaning against the wall. Dressed in a Chanel suit and with a growing frown on her face, she looked ready to bash his head against a car door.

"Give me a twenty," she ordered before he could get a single word out.

"What?"

"Do it or I start pulling at your hair extensions."

"I don't wear any hair extensions."

Lexi simply held out her hand. Stefan reached for his wallet and fished out a twenty, which his friend snapped right out of his hands.

"I'll consider this a retainer. Congratulations, you've now officially enlisted the services of Pope & Associates," she explained in a dull yet angry tone. Lexi couldn't help but feel bitter. After years of law school and paying her dues with dreary paperwork, she had caught her break just last year, working as an aide and right-hand woman to a high-profile political fixer at P&A. She was her boss's protege, on the verge of becoming the next big-name fixer in DC and now she had to drop half her clients and come back into the city just to take care of her troublesome best friend.

"Lexi, what are you talking about? You can't-"

"Do you have any idea what I had to give up. My boss was going to let me sit-in on a meeting with the president for christ's sake, but instead I'm being dragged here at four in the morning to handle your mess."

"I'm sorry-"

"Drop it," she ordered, not giving him a chance to finish any of his sentences. "For the time being, you're not my friend. You're my client. There's no way I could get away with using P&A's resources without having my boss questioning me, so if you want my help, you have to be my client."

"OK, fine," Stefan acquiesced. "So how bad does it look?"

"How bad?! This goes so far beyond hacking into someone's email. You're facing kidnapping charges here and with a member of the press no less."

"We didn't kidnap her."

"Technically you did. All of you. The second you decided to transport her ass from one location to another and lock her up, you became kidnappers."

"We were discreet."

"Oh that makes it all right then," Lexi scoffed.

"What were we supposed to do? Let her go to the cops so she could say we did all of this."

"You could have submitted your surveillance to the authorities. It was clearly tampered with and they wouldn't be able to link you to it. But now..." Lexi shook her head.

"She still could have accused us."

"But she wouldn't have any proof of it! Now you've moved her and god knows how many people saw you. But oh wait, you were discreet right? Did you wear black camouflage to blend into the night while you were at it?"

"She's not a street thug, Lexi. She's intelligent and well known - her byline is famous enough to get people's attention. I was not going to risk letting her tarnish my family's name by airing our dirty laundry to the world."

"You don't even know what she has on you yet."

"Isn't that what you were supposed to figure out?" Stefan griped, getting more frustrated by the minute.

"Watch your tone," Lexi warned her friend. She pulled a file out of her bag and pushed it into Stefan's chest. "I had my guy Huck get into her work account. We figured something fishy was up when there wasn't a trace of you or your friends' names in her emails."

"You think someone got into before you did?"

Lexi nodded. "Think about it, she's written about almost all of you at some point or another, yet there was nothing in her inbox?"

"Someone must have swiped it, just like the surveillance at SC and Perduto."

"Fortunately, company email accounts are all accessible online and anything that goes online is never permanently deleted. It's all encrypted somewhere in this cyber wasteland. My guy managed to retrieve some of it."

"You printed it all out?" Stefan asked, confusing as to why she wouldn't just present this to him on a flash-drive or a tablet.

"Yes. For the time being, you should stick to paper. It's easy to destroy, it can't be hacked into and it'll leave less of a trail," she explained. "Someone's obviously keeping a close watch on you so you're going to have to be careful with your devices. I'm going to get safe smartphones for all of you and I'm going to need you all to submit your devices over to my tech team - they may very well be bugged for all we know."

"Anything else?"

"I'm also going to have a team check all of your homes for bugs as well."

Stefan took in a deep breath. He couldn't believe it was less than a week ago that he had gone whining to Caroline about being bored with his life. Now he and his friends were being blackmailed, followed and targeted. He suddenly began to yearn for boredom. At least boredom was simple.

Exhaling, Stefan opened up the file and began rifling through information. Apparently Tessa had accumulated lots of personal information about all of them. The file contained details and pictures about Caroline and Klaus' nuptials, Damon and Elena's breakup, an affair Tyler had with some unknown woman. Stefan raised a brow when he caught sight of Matt's secret menage-a-trois. He certainly didn't see that one coming. Stefan flipped the page and stopped at a photo of him and Elena dressed in bathrobes, standing on a hotel balcony in Milan.

He could feel Lexi's unimpressed stare on him as he looked at the photo. "I can explain."

"I'm sure."

"It was one night. She and Damon were technically broken up at that point."

"Please stop. It's far too early in the morning for you to start boring me with that disaster of a love triangle." Lexi rolled her eyes. "Besides this stuff isn't too important. She's already written about half of it, so I doubt it's what she was planning on blackmailing you with. Take a look at the last few pages."

Stefan did as his friend instructed and stopped once he caught sight of a familiar name. "Atticus Shane."

"You remember him?"

Stefan had trouble forgetting him. The man did after-all take the fall for his family's company. Atticus Shane worked as an executive for Salvatore Consolidated about five years ago.

As a weapons and munitions company, it didn't look too good for Salvatore Consolidated when the Securities & Exchange commission discovered the company had been laundering money to an underground crime syndicate. The investigation led the SEC to take a closer look at all the companies they were doing business with, which meant experimental science companies like Forbes Global and Petrova Inc and tech industries like LockCorp also felt the backlash due to their close ties to the Salvatores. It got to a point where Salvatore Consolidated needed a fall out guy, someone who could take the blame.

With the help of a few alliances, Stefan's father Giuseppe had managed to manipulate all the evidence to point to Atticus Shane.

"Yeah, I remember." Giuseppe had reluctantly confessed what really happened with Shane to his son when Stefan came into the business. Stefan observed the photo of the man being dragged away from court after being handed a life sentence. "He's in prison."

"He's dead."

"What?" Stefan's eyes snapped up to Lexi's.

"He was killed in a prison riot three years ago."

"You think it all links back to him? To what my family did to this guy?" Stefan knew her answer. His father's confession had haunted him for a long time. After he found out that Giuseppe and his colleagues had put an innocent man to jail, the only person he felt he could confide in was Lexi. He was pretty sure Damon and the others didn't know the truth, only that Atticus Shane really was guilty of aiding a dangerous underworld organization under the guise of working for Salvatore Consolidated. It looked like fate had now left Stefan to be the barer of bad news because he would surely have to tell everyone just what really went down five years ago.

At the sight of Stefan's forlorn face, Lexi finally felt all the bitterness she had drain away. She sighed. "I think that woman in there was only hired to blackmail you and it's not for the money either. She's a Bennett, a trust fund baby. She doesn't need the money. She's smart, but she's no mastermind. If she were she wouldn't be tied up and held hostage. Trust me, she's working for someone. I just don't know what she plans on gaining from it."

"You think the person who hired her brought her to us?" He watched his friend nod. "Why?"

"For starters, to get the reaction he or she's getting right now. All of you are on edge right?"

"Tessa doesn't seem like she'd willingly go along with being kidnapped. She hasn't given us any information to go by, but if there's one thing she's being genuine about, it's being caught off guard by the situation she's in."

"Maybe this was part of the plan she wasn't in on. Your father runs a company that's soon going to be passed over to you. But can you say for certain that he lets you in on all of his plans? Hell, do you even let your employees in on everything that goes on behind-the-scenes?

Stefan didn't answer. While he was determined to make sure Salvatore Consolidated wouldn't stray down the same path under his leadership, but sometimes he wondered if he was doomed to repeat the same mistakes his father had made.

"So, who do you think she's working for? Someone connected to Shane?"

"Maybe," Lexi shrugged. "You're going to have to get her to tell you."

"She won't."

"Everyone has a price. Find out what hers is. You might not be able to pay her off, but maybe there's something else she wants. At the very least, you're going to have to find a way to buy her silence because you can't just keep her locked up forever."

"You're suggesting we make a deal with her?" Stefan watched his friend with an uncertain look. "You know, some people can't be bought or bullied or persuaded. What happens when nothing works with her?"

Lexi stayed quiet for a moment before answering. "The guy I told you about - the one who was able to retrieve her files. He's not just a tech guy per se."

"What do you mean?"

Lexi shifted her eyes, looking uncomfortable at what she was about to say. "If it comes down to it - he has less than friendly, off the record ways of getting people to talk."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

11:35 a.m.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Klaus turned around to look at his wife. Caroline was wearing her angry face. For added effect, she placed her hands on her hips to show just how ticked off she was. He took one long look at her and then back at the beaker clutched in his hand. "Just a drink to calm the nerves, love."

Caroline's eyes narrowed. "You don't have nerves. They take one look at you and scamper in the other direction."

She reached over and pulled the flask away from him. "I can't believe you. My parents are outside, waiting to have brunch with us and you're in here getting sloshed."

Klaus sighed and leaned back on the large island in the middle of the kitchen. There was a fine assortment of fruits, eggs and pastries set up and waiting for them in the patio, but the only thing Klaus had a craving for came in a flask. "Caroline, it's just one drink."

"I don't care," Caroline scolded as she began to straighten his tie. She already had enough piling on her list of woes. First there was all the unpleasantness that came with being blackmailed. Then there were the sudden disappearances concerning the people in her life. Not only was Bonnie missing, but her assistant's wife had given Caroline a call earlier informing her that Thierry never came home from work on Friday and that she'd be filing a missing person's report. Caroline had enough problems and she was damn sure not going to add drunken spouse to that never-ending list.

Her mother had miraculously managed to convince her father to host Sunday brunch at his penthouse and Caroline was determined to make sure it was a success. "I know you're not too familiar with the whole meeting-the-parents portion of a relationship, so here's the deal - it involves making a good impression and having alcohol on your breath before noon doesn't cut it."

Klaus let out of an irritated little huff. "Fine, I'll just alter the Earth's axis to make the weather more pleasant for them shall I?"

"Look, I don't expect them to love you. You're certainly not an easy man to love."

"Thank you, dear," he remarked derisively. "I don't see the point in trying with them. Your folks are already a tad too familiar with me and I doubt they're going to start calling me son anytime soon."

"As I was saying, I don't expect them to love you," she continued, "Just like I don't expect your family will ever warm up to me. But we can at least try to be civil about all this. Especially since we have future holiday dinners and family reunions to take into consideration."

Klaus frowned. "My siblings like you well enough."

"Please." Caroline snorted in response. "They all look down at me like I'm trash. Except for Kol who just preferred to look down my blouse."

Klaus' face immediately constricted and Caroline knew she was entering unwelcome waters. She knew Klaus didn't like to talk about Kol, especially after the falling out they had awhile back. What she didn't know was that the resentful expression that formed on his face at the mere mention of Kol's name had everything to do with the little shadow war that was raging between the two brothers at this very moment.

"Maybe you should give him a call one of these days. Try to sit down and talk things out," Caroline suggested as she brushed a hand against his cheek. "It's what normal people do, you know. Though I suppose you don't qualify when it comes to being normal."

Klaus tilted his head to the side. "And you do?"

"Hey, I happen to be the picture of normalcy," she affirmed despite knowing that she was neurotic as they came.

"Oh really?" Klaus reached over and pushed a strand of her soft blonde hair back over her shoulder. "Tell me, baby. Do normal people also try to sneak out at 4 o'clock in the morning for no apparent reason?"

"Not this again." Caroline sighed and moved to the other side of the room, putting the kitchen island between them.

"I already told you. I couldn't sleep and I went for a drive." She had snuck out in the early morning to meet with Stefan and Katherine. Klaus usually slept like the dead so she figured he'd be none the wiser. But, of course, luck wasn't on her side these days. Klaus had definitely noticed her absence and was more than suspicious about it too.

"That's it. I promise." Caroline didn't like lies. She wasn't very good at it, but she knew the best lies were the ones that had elements of truth to them. So that's what she gave her husband.

Klaus watched her and tried his best to refrain from scowling and tossing a glass to the wall. She was clearly lying to him. He could feel it. The security guards he had tailing her told him that she did in fact simply go for a drive. But it wasn't like Caroline to drive aimlessly around the city in an obscure hour only to turn back to his place. She was never one to do anything unproductive. When she couldn't sleep or needed a distraction, she'd stay home and work or do engage in some stress cleaning. He once caught her trying to clean his fireplace. Though that wasn't half as amusing as the time she got so nervous about the new club opening that she tried to make the bed while he was still on it. No, Klaus was sure she was heading somewhere and she wasn't letting him in on it.

Since the incident with Kol started up, he had upped the number of guards watching her. Now he wondered if it was too much. One bodyguard hidden in the shadows could go undetected on her radar, but Caroline was sure to catch on if more were following her. But what choice did he have? Until he found Kol and resolved that issue, he had to keep a closer eye on her. He didn't know what concerned him more - Kol's threats or Caroline lying to him.

"Come on," she held out her hand for him to take and led him out of the kitchen. "It's brunch time."

Once they got out of the kitchen, Caroline spotted her father heading towards his study. Her mother was waiting for them back in the patio. This was her chance to get a word in with her dad. "Hey, I'm going to have a quick chat with my dad," she whispered in his ear. "Entertain my mom for me."

"Entertain her?!" Klaus watched his wife incredulously as she sped across the living room and into the library. He couldn't believe she was abandoning him right now. "Oh fine. I'll just regale her with fuzzy, heart-warming tales from my childhood."

Caroline knocked on the door tentatively before peaking inside. Bill Forbes was standing by his desk, reading some messages on his phone.

"Hi Dad." Caroline closed the door behind her and approached her father. "The food's all ready, you know."

Bill's blue eyes shifted over to his daughter. "Yes, I just wanted to check in on some things," he said, motioning to the smartphone in his hand.

"Work as always, I see," she nodded. "Everything OK?"

"Just fine," he replied stiffly.

"Thanks for doing all this. I know brunch isn't really your thing."

"Your mother threatened to shoot me if I didn't," he said seriously. Bill knew better than to underestimate his ex-wife. The woman had already put a solid hole through him once, a long time ago, when he walked out on her. He didn't fancy having to go through that ordeal all over again.

Caroline began walking around his home office, stopping at the shelves to look at some of the pictures - there was one of her fifth birthday. "Mom says you're partnering with the Petrovas on a new project."

Caroline watched her father's reaction, hoping to get sign of what was going on. Both Forbes Global and Petrova Inc were experimental science and genetics companies that had gotten into their fair share of messy encounters, bad publicity and shady dealings over the years. After coming to blows with the SEC a couple of years ago, they were a lot more careful about who they got into bed with business-wise. That still didn't mean her father wasn't making dire mistakes - mistakes that could put his entire family in jeopardy.

"I don't think that's going to happen again." Bill rolled his eyes a bit. "The Petrovas want to resurrect a cloning project we killed a few years back."

"What? Why? That was a complete failure," Caroline said, recalling how the SEC came down on both companies over their failed organ cloning experimentation.

"It was and yet they want another go at it. They don't have enough funding for it on their own, so they've come crying to us." Bill sighed. "We haven't given them an official rejection yet - but that's where it's leading." Bill had no intention of aligning his company with Petrova Inc again, especially now that his 'son-in-law' was now one of P.I.'s top shareholders and on the board of the directors.

"How are things going at Forbes Global these days?" Caroline asked, trying to be nonchalant.

Bill crossed his arms as he regarded his daughter. "Since when are you interested in what happens in my company?"

"I've always been interested," she insisted. At her father's skeptical gaze, she put up her hands. "Ok, you caught me. I just wanted to know what's going on with you. It's been awhile since we talked."

"Yes, between work and secret marriages, you haven't really had time to pencil me in." Bill sighed at the guilty look that came across his daughter's face. "It's not your fault. You get it from me." Bill knew that much to be true. After divorcing her mother, Bill was barely around for Caroline when she was growing up. He also had to give her credit for handling his coming out and his surprise marriage to Stephen with such grace. She had accepted it with a kind of consideration that he couldn't bring himself to have for her choice of a spouse.

"I'm just concerned about you Dad. You seem a bit stressed and worried, so I thought something happened at work."

"Care-bear, the only thing that worries me are the decisions you've been making." Bill walked over to her and reached for her hands. "I know a man with two failed marriages  
under his belt shouldn't be passing off judgment-"

"Then don't," Caroline snapped. "Do you think I wanted this? Don't you think I wanted something simple where there wasn't the slightest chance I could get hurt? He's difficult, complicated, full of baggage and yet I couldn't help but fall in love with him. We're powerless in the face of love - you told me that once, remember?"

Bill let out of a tiny groan of irritation. "Why couldn't you have just chosen not to listen to your parents like a normal child?"

Both father and daughter turned their heads at the clearing of a throat. Klaus was waiting by the door, hands in his pockets. "Caroline, your mother's asking for you."

She squeezed her father's hands before letting go. She smiled as she made her way past Klaus. Before she could leave, he placed a hand gently to her waist, pulling her towards him to whisper in her ear. "Caroline, you're beautiful. But if you leave me alone with one of your parents again, I will kill you."

Caroline merely gave him one of her bright smiles and kissed his cheek. She decided to call his bluff. "Daddy," she said over her shoulder, "Klaus wants a word with you in private."

She fluttered away before Klaus had a chance to stop her. And with that, he found himself alone with his father-in-law.

Klaus shut the door behind him and began to slowly prowl around the room. In the past, he had only ever dealt with Bill Forbes in terms of business. But now they were in a different territory - one where they were obligated to recognize each other as family. The things he was willing to do and tolerate for Caroline, Klaus shook his head.

"Mr. Forbes," he began, "I know our encounters in the past have been less than agreeable, but for Caroline's sake, I'd just like to apologize and I hope we can put old grudges behind us - it was only business, after all."

Bill sized up the man in front him, the one his daughter had foolishly chosen to spend her life with. He didn't believe for a second that Klaus was being genuine. "Well, if we're going to make amends, I feel the need to apologize as well."

"Do you now?"

"Yes, I'm sorry I didn't find a way to get rid of you before you got within an inch of my little girl's heart," Bill bit out. "When you got the SEC to meddle in me and my colleagues' businesses, I was too busy trying to keep my company together to retaliate. And don't try to deny it, we both know it was your doing."

Klaus smacked his lips and nodded. "So I'm guessing that's a 'no' on burying old grudges?"

"I know you, boy. I know you're angle. You think because you got her to marry you, that you have her - own her in a way. But just remember this, Caroline happily walked away from one marriage, she can just as easily walk away from the second."

By the time Bill had left, Klaus was boiling with anger as insecure thoughts began to circle his mind like sharks.

**A/N - Well, I'm not too sure I liked how this chapter turned out...I kept feeling like something was missing about it, so I'm calling it part 1 of the chapter. Anyway, please let me know what you guys think. And a special thanks to those who reviewed the previous chaps! **

**I know some of you want to see more Kalijah and there will definitely be more with them later. Katherine's going to find out something surprising about Elijah in the upcoming chapters.**

**Also, if any of you are _Scandal_ fans, then you probably noted that Lexi's working for Olivia Pope ;). **


	10. Chapter 6, Part 2

**1:03 p.m.**

Caroline quickly stuffed a handful of jelly beans into her mouth as she stood by the entrance of her father's building. Klaus was still in the lobby taking a business call. She could see him through the glass doors that led to the waiting area. Uninterested in listening to Klaus threaten hound his staff, Caroline had decided to wait outside and get some air.

She and Klaus had just finished off what had to be the most silent brunch in history with her parents. Yet by the time it was over, Caroline realized she had hardly touched anything on her plate. Thank goodness for the emergency stash of jelly beans in her purse, she thought as she popped another one into her mouth.

Her eyes travelled back and forth down the streets, looking for any signs of the black Hybrid that had been tailing her earlier in the morning, but all she saw were taxis breezing down the lane. It was by the sidewalk where she caught Stefan trying to hail one down while finishing off a bagel.

"Stefan," she shouted out, quickly jogging up to him, but he didn't appear to have heard her. "Stefan. Over here."

The man took a large step back from the sidewalk and turned around just as Caroline came running up to him, leading to an inevitable collision. "Whoah," he said, letting out a surprised squeak. Both his arms came up around the blonde, steadying her as she ran smack into his chest.

"Oh my god." Caroline crimsoned at the realization that the man she had been calling was, in fact, not one of her best friends. But the resemblance was rather striking. From a distance, he could almost pass for Stefan's twin. It was only close up that she noticed all the un-Stefan-like features - the wrinkles around his forehead and the ice-like paleness of his eyes. Maybe he not twin, but he could definitely be Stefan's estranged uncle or long lost big brother. "This is so awkward. I thought you were someone else and I just-I am so sorry," she said, clumsily stepping out of the stranger's arms.

"As you should be. Don't you know that running into beautiful blondes is a definite way to destroy any man's day?" He teased.

"Oh, but your bagel." Caroline looked down at the bagel that had fallen out of the man's grasp in his attempt to keep them both from toppling over. The sesame seed bagel had met it's end in the pavement, cream-cheese side down.

"Yes, it met an untimely end. But your snack seems to have been spared." He picked up the bag of jelly beans she had dropped and handed it back to her.

"Hey, you're right. They didn't even fall out of the bag." She smiled at him. "You want some? They're gourmet, organic, fat-free and vegan."

"I'm pretty sure all of that defeats the purpose of a jelly bean." The man smiled back, amused.

"They're actually really good," Caroline shrugged, holding up the bag. "It'll make up for the bagel."

"No thanks." His eyes briefly checked her out. "But, uh, if you want to make it up to me. There's this great bistro just down the street. Maybe we can-"

"Oh no, no, no," Caroline quickly shook her head before he could finish. "Sorry, I can't." She waved her left hand in the air, showing off her stunning ring.

The man quickly took note of the huge rock on her finger. His face fell a bit in disappointment, but he managed to politely smile through it. "Now you see, that is a sure-fire way to ruin a man's day."

Caroline stood silently, taking in all the details in his face. Noticing her blatant stare, the man gave a crooked smile and placed a hand to his lips. "Have I got cheese on my face or something?"

"No, sorry. I don't mean to stare. It's just you look so much like my friend. It's too eerie."

"If he looks anything like me, then he has my dearest sympathies," he joked. The stranger looked past Caroline's shoulder and smiled a little. "I take it that terrifying man who looks like he's about to come at me like a bull in a china shop is your husband?"

The blonde turned her head and followed his gaze. Klaus did not look pleased to see her chatting up some stranger on the street. His face turned cold and hardened with irritation as he strode over to her.

Caroline returned her attention to the man and smiled. "He's not so terrifying once you get to know him," she lied. Klaus was actually worse once you got to know him.

The man's face expressed that he didn't buy it for one second. "He looks ready to rip out my pancreas and have it for lunch."

"Don't be silly. He just ate. Your pancreas is perfectly safe for the time being."

"If it's all the same, I'd rather not stick around and take my chances." He stepped back and waved a hand in the air, calling for a taxi. One of the cars stopped for him and he went over to pop open the door. Before going in, he turned back to face Caroline. "It was nice talking to you, Mrs-?"

"It's Forbes. Caroline Forbes."

"Galen Vaughn." The man nodded an introduction in return.

"Sorry for ruining your bagel and your day."

"You didn't ruin my day, Mrs. Forbes. You made it." He flashed her one last smile before jumping into the taxi.

"Who the hell was that?" Klaus barked behind her. She shifted her head to find him watching the passing taxi with disdain.

"Just some guy who looked remarkably at lot like Stefan."

"And you were flirting with him, why?" Klaus demanded.

"I was not flirting." Caroline crossed her arms over her chest, not caring for her husband's accusation.

"You were smiling at him."

"Yes, Klaus. Unlike you, some of us can't simply express everything with scowls and sneers," Caroline said exasperatedly. "I would have also smiled at him if he was 75 with a limp. Would you have considered it flirting then?"

"Yes," he replied plainly.

"I smile at lots of people. It doesn't mean anything."

Klaus narrowed his eyes. "Just exactly how many blokes do you go around smiling at on a daily basis?"

Caroline rolled her eyes, refusing to give him an answer. She was relieved when she saw his chauffeur pull up.

Klaus muttered out a curse and placed a hand gently on her back as he guided her towards the waiting car. "I can't leave you alone for five minutes without some tosser trying weasel his way in."

"As annoying as I find all this testosterone-driven, alpha-male BS. I have to admit, jealousy is a rather cute color on you." She pecked him on the lips. "But really, Klaus. You don't have to worry. Most guys don't see me the way you see me."

Klaus set his lips in her a firm line. "You have no idea how wrong you are, love," he said in a serious tone.

Once they were both settled inside the car, Caroline moved into his space, cozening up next to him as he brought his arm around her. She watched the streets go by from the window for awhile before looking back at Klaus. He was lost in thought, his face stiff and stoic. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, love."

"You're seriously not still mad about that guy are you?"

"No, it's not that," he said tightly.

"Then what is it?"

"That man from the street. He called you 'Mrs. Forbes.'"

Caroline crinkled her eyes in confusion. She waited for him to go on.

"Did you give him your maiden name?"

"Yeah, so what? It's my name."

"I assumed you would change it now that we're married."

Caroline shifted uneasily, not liking the direction this conversation was headed. "It's just a name. It's no big deal."

"If it's not a big deal, why not take mine?"

"I'm just used to being a Forbes."

"You changed it for the Lockwood boy."

Caroline sucked in a breath. Of course, he just had to bring that up. "And that was a mistake. Not to mention all the paperwork I had to go through to change it back. Besides it was stupid of me to have changed it to begin with - not many women these days bother changing their names."

Her words upset him. She could see it in his face. Not wanting to take his name - he was taking it as a rejection. Caroline began to think of the best way to reassure him. The truth was that while she loved being married to Klaus, she just didn't see herself as a 'Mikaelson.' She didn't think she ever would.

Tyler was a different situation. She was really young and foolish when she became a Lockwood, but she was also more comfortable with Tyler's family. Their families were old friends and Caroline had been staying over at the Lockwood house since she was 10. While she didn't get along with everyone in Tyler's family, namely his mother, they were all very familiar with one another and looked out for each other. But Klaus' family was so very different - not so much in lifestyle or class, but just their overall demeanor. The Mikaelsons were an arrogant bunch who acted like they owned the world. They were like a country that had no-foreigner signs hung up on every province. Since hearing about their nuptials, Klaus' siblings had done very little to make Caroline feel like she was part of the family. Finn couldn't have cared less. Rebekah was disgusted by her. Elijah wanted her to sign a post-nuptial agreement. The only one she remotely got along with was Kol and he was exiled from the fold.

Caroline exhaled. She couldn't tell Klaus any of this. She was sure he would take it the wrong way, so she settled for an alternative truth.

"Klaus, you know how much I love you," she began softly, "And I'm so happy with you. But I just don't want to lose this person I've worked so hard to be. It took a long time for me to make a name for myself professionally and I just don't want to lose that."

Klaus' eyes were glued to the window, away from her. He didn't want to start a fight and he knew with Caroline that he had to carefully pick his battles, but it bothered him that she refused to take his name. They were married now. She was his now. People should know her as Mrs. Mikaelson, his wife. No one would be able to harm or touch her because she would always be linked to him. If anything it would have made their connection even stronger.

"Hey." Caroline grasped his chin and pulled his face towards her. "Like I said, it's just a name. I'm still your wife."

"I know." Klaus drew her in, closer, so that her head was tucked under his chin. He inhaled her scent and placed a kiss on her head. "And that's never going to change." She was a stubborn one, his wife. But he would find a way to get her to come around, he always did.

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**5:34 p.m.**

Kol sped straight through the red light. Cars were honking at him, drivers stuck their heads out their windows, cursing the madness at which he drove. Not that Kol cared. His only priority now was getting back to the warehouse and making sure Bonnie was safe. He should never have left her alone.

After not receiving any word from Hardison, Kol had went to check up on his friend only to find the man sitting half dead by his desk with one hand nailed down to the mahogany wood by a knife.

While driving Hardison to a safe house owned by Leverage Consulting, his friend had managed to feebly choke out that Klaus' men had gotten to him and he was pretty sure they were headed to the warehouse. Kol wasted no time after that.

He dropped the tech whiz off and called one of Hardison's colleagues, requesting they bring a medic to the safe house before driving out in almost-lightning speed. The warehouse he resided in was hidden away, miles away from the city. All he knew was that he had get back, toute de suite.

With the right medical attention, he knew Hardison would make it out alright. He wasn't too sure he could say the same for Bonnie if he didn't make it back in time.

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**6:21 p.m.**

"Seriously?" Caroline stretched out both her hands, gesturing towards Lexi's tech crew. If the men had noticed the annoyed blonde that had entered the flat, they didn't let on as they continued to examine every inch of the apartment for hidden cameras and covert listening devices. "Katherine, you couldn't have taken two minutes to text me and let me know a geek squad would be dissecting our loft today?"

Katherine sat back on the couch, looking entirely too unconcerned. "But that would've meant two minutes away from my afternoon fantasy of being punished in a courthouse by a delicious lawyer with an ass so tight you could bounce a quarter off of it."

"First off: Ew," Caroline said. "Second: What if I had brought Klaus with me? He's been on my case since this morning. He would totally freak if he knew that I needed to have people check my place for secret spy gear."

"I wouldn't have been able to warn you anyway. Lexi's team of gladiators confiscated all our devices. They have to check them for bugs."

"Including yours," Stefan emerged behind her to grab the smartphone right out of her palm.

"Hey," Caroline started, but Stefan was already walking towards one of Lexi's tech people, instructing them to look into Caroline's phone.

"Ugh, whatever. I'm too tired to fight right now." Caroline gave up and sank into the couch. She lied on it and rested her head on Katherine's lap. "Brunch was a waste."

"Couldn't get anything off of your dad?"

"No. He seemed the same as usual. Nothing was off about him. Though he did mention that your family's company wanted to revive that cloning project from years ago."

"What cloning project?"

"You know that organ cloning experiment. They lost millions on it."

Katherine petted Caroline's hair and shook her head sadly. "Millions that could've went to my haute couture shoe collection."

"Yes Kat, because properly dressing your feet trumps the future health and livelihood of people across the globe," Caroline shook her head. "Any news on the deceased Mr. Shane and his connection to Tessa or the person she's working for?"

"Nope, not yet."

Caroline mulled it over. She couldn't quite understand how her family and the Petrovas became affiliated with this mess. The Salvatores were the ones who sank Shane's entire life. Bonnie's father was then the District Attorney and Tyler's mother was the Assistant D.A. who dealt with Shane's case, making sure he was put away. But as far as she could tell, the Forbes' and the Petrovas had nothing connecting them to the deceased, wrongly accused man.

"So what's going on with you and Dracula? Don't tell me there's trouble in paradise already?" Katherine's voice cracked through her thoughts.

"Klaus' just been on my case a lot. He knew I snuck out in the morning and hasn't let it go. Then there was this thing with the guy on the street..."

"What guy?"

"Never mind. It's not important." Caroline closed her eyes for a moment. She tried to rest but her senses were on alert. She could hear Stefan, Lexi and the crew talking in the background, someone typing on a laptop, a clock inside a bell-jar ticking away. "Stefan thinks I should tell Klaus. But I know him. He wouldn't take any of this well and he won't give me a moment's peace if he found out."

"Stefan's an old-school romantic. He's deluded himself into thinking people in relationships can actually be honest with one another." Katherine rolled her eyes.

"But that's not how it works. There are things you just don't tell them, things you'll never tell them. One thing I learned from my mother, love is a war where two people are just pretending to be on the same side, but really they're both double agents ready to take the other down at a moment's notice."

Caroline's head sprang up as Stefan and Lexi approached them. She looked over at Stefan, who was failing miserably at hiding the look of concern on his face.

"What's wrong?" Caroline asked instantly.

Stefan gazed down briefly, unsure how to begin. "Katherine, your phone's in the clear. As is mine. In fact, all of our devices are clean, except..." Stefan paused. His eyes reluctantly met Caroline's. "They found something in yours, Caroline."

"What?"

"A GPS tracker," Lexi supplied.

"What?!" Caroline all but jumped off the couch.

"Calm down, Care." Stefan put a hand on her shoulder in a futile attempt at reassurance.

"Easy for you to say." Caroline shook his hand off. "You're not the one being followed."

"No I'm just the one whose family is the closest connection to the person who's terrorizing us," Stefan chided. He sighed in regret a second later and placed his arm around her. "I'm sorry. I don't know why you're being singled out like this. But please believe me when I say that we all are in this together."

Lexi came up to her and handed her a BlackBerry. "Caroline, we're going to try to retrace the chip - see if we can catch who's been following you. For the time being, just use this device. It's safe and it can't be tapped into. Just be sure to keep it with you at all times. Don't leave it alone."

Caroline rubbed her eyes in disbelief, wondering when all the madness would end.

"Is there anyone who could have gotten access to your phone?" Lexi asked.

"Apart from my friends and my husband?" Caroline shrugged. "There's my assistant Thierry...who's inconveniently missing at the moment. But there's no way it could've been him."

"You don't know that," Lexi said in a firm tone. "This person could be anybody with a link to Shane. All of you are going to have to re-evaluate the people in your life. The people you work with, the people you talk to, people you meet."

Caroline shivered, a thought suddenly injecting itself into her mind. "You mean, even strangers we meet on the street."

"Yes, why?"

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**7:05 p.m.**

Bonnie threw on one of Kol's sweaters and paced the room in an attempt to fight off the shivers that were blazing through her body. She was still reeling over the video Kol had showed her yesterday. Someone had shot Caroline's assistant, abducted her cousin and had left her a dubious message all in the same night. Kol had sworn to her that he wasn't behind any of this, that his intentions took a far different route, and while she didn't trust him, Bonnie was inclined to take his word for it. He seemed just as surprised and confused about what had happened to her cousin that night as she was. Kol even seemed, dare she say it, worried for her. Ironic, considering he was the one holding her captive for reasons that were still unknown to her.

The dynamic between them changed a little after that. He had released her from all her restraints under the condition that Bonnie would not try to sucker-punch him again. Bonnie had quickly agreed. She couldn't stand being tied down to a chair a moment longer. She still intended to take this guy down once she was free from his clutches, but until then she would have to cooperate or at least make him believe she was cooperating. She didn't think Kol would harm her - if he wanted to, he certainly could have done so. Instead, he had brought her food, let her sleep on his bed, asked her if she needed anything and for the most part, tried to make their situation less uncomfortable for her. Bonnie truly believed that Kol would let her go once he got whatever it was he was after, but if he thought he would get off scotch-free afterwards, then he was, for all intents and purposes, an idiot.

She froze in the middle of the room when she heard two men approach the door. Their voices were hard and a bit muddled, but she could still make a few things out if she placed her head closer to the door.

"It's this one," one of them said.

"How do you know?" asked the other.

"It's the only one that has a Wi-Fi signal coming off."

"What if he's not in there?"

"Even better, we'll be here for him when he arrives."

Bonnie immediately jumped away from the door. Her heart began to race. She had seen Kol lock and unlock it with his smartphone. If the doors could be opened wirelessly, then there was a chance the men could find a way in by hacking into his Wi-Fi.

Bonnie had no clue as to who they could be. Were they friends of his? She doubted it. Kol didn't seem like the type of guy who had friends. For the first time since being kidnapped, she wished Kol was here. At least she knew for sure that he wouldn't hurt her. She couldn't say the same about these two.

Telling herself to stay calm, Bonnie tried to even out her breathing. It would probably be a while before they could get in. She needed to think up a plan. There was no way out, so she had to hide. But where? Bonnie looked around. How the hell was she supposed to hide in a minimalist room?

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**7:25 p.m.**

Stepping out of the restaurant with a take-away bag, Katherine hissed as she caught sight of the hangnail on her thumb. It seemed she just couldn't catch a break today. She and Stefan had been up all of last night looking after Tessa. And since discovering someone was tracing all of her Caroline's whereabouts, Stefan had become even more paranoid. He insisted that she stay with Klaus for the night, knowing she would at least be safe in his building. But this meant, Katherine had to babysit Tessa once again. Not to mention she was currently fetching food for her the person aiding their blackmailer, all because of Stefan and Caroline and their damn bleeding hearts.

"We can't starve her, Katherine," Caroline had admonished.

"Why the hell not? She might be more willing to talk if we got her hungry enough and waved a piece of steak in the air," Katherine had insisted.

Eventually she caved in and agreed to pick up some gourmet Chinese food along the way. Katherine only hoped Tessa was allergic to peanut oil and MSG.

She cursed Caroline for making her do this. But mostly, she cursed Stefan for putting a damper on her plans. Sure, volunteer Katherine for guard duty, she thought bitterly. Never mind that she's got a hot man-toy waiting for her and all this blackmailing was wreaking havoc on her love life.

Katherine heaved out a sigh. She had already cancelled on Elijah the night before; she only hoped he didn't think she was ditching him all together because she wanted to do nothing more than to hop into bed with him and sleep in his arms. She just wanted to be with him right now. They didn't even have to have sex...Oh who was she kidding. She could sleep when she was dead. She needed sex while she was still young and alive.

She stopped in her tracks at the sound of a pair hashing it out from across the street. Katherine looked over and found the object of her affection himself in a heated argument with a blonde woman whom she recognized as socialite Rebekah Mikaelson.

Katherine couldn't make out what they were saying to another, only that it all looked pretty intense. Elijah's body language suggested he was both uncomfortable and angry at his sister causing a scene in the middle of the street. After trying and failing to calm his sister, he eventually had enough as he roughly yanked Rebekah's arm and all but dragged her inside the waiting car. Elijah followed his sister into the car and instructed the driver to take them to his home. He didn't bother looking out the window. If he had, he would've caught the face of his very confused girlfriend.

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**8:34 p.m.**

"No need to be hostile gents." Kol raised his hands in the air, including the one that was currently holding a glock.

Both of Klaus' men had their guns aimed at him, though neither had any intention of shooting him. They both knew they would end up six feet under if they killed their boss' brother.

"Where's the girl?"

"What girl?" he shrugged. Kol had barged into his loft not too long ago, but instead of seeing Bonnie, all he found were two of Klaus' guys with their guns up and ready. Klaus hadn't changed - he was still hiring the same breed of men to be his minions. Tall, big, intimidating and would do anything their boss asked of them.

One of the men exhaled with irritation. "The one you kidnapped." They had orders to get rid of her on sight.

"Oh her. Long gone by now. Feisty little thing she was." Kol's eyes quickly scanned the room for any trace of Bonnie. She had to be hiding somewhere. There was only one other room, the bathroom, and if she were hiding there, these two thugs were sure to have found her by now.

"It doesn't matter," the other man told Kol. "You're going to have to come with us."

"I suppose you're going to tell me we can do this the easy way or the hard way."

"No," he said firmly. "There is no easy way."

"Lower your gun. Now," the man's companion ordered.

"Or what? You'll shoot me?" Kol laughed. "I know my brother and I imagine he's got all of you on a very tight leash, am I right?"

"We're supposed to get you back alive. He didn't say anything about being alive and well." The man threatened as he lowered his gun and aimed it at Kol's leg.

"OK, OK," Kol held up his hands again in mock-surrender. He walked in a little half-circle to get closer to the bed. If Bonnie had anyplace to hide, it would be in the small crawlspace under the bed. "I'll just set this bad boy down." He gently placed his gun on the floor, by the middle of the bed. Kol already knew Bonnie could defend herself in a fight, he just hoped she knew her way around a firearm.

Before either of Klaus' men could walk over to Kol, a small hand quickly reached out from under the bed and grabbed the gun. Bonnie swiftly fired at both men, shooting them each on the leg. They went down in pain and Kol took the opportunity to snatch both of their weapons before kicking the men away.

Bonnie swiveled out from under the bed and stood up to see her handiwork. "Oh my god," she gasped. She had actually shot people. While a part of her was still reeling from the shock, the survivor in her thanked god for Liz Forbes. Caroline had always been embarrassed every year on her birthday when her mother would take her, Bonnie and Elena to the shooting range. Mrs. Forbes had insisted that the three young ladies needed the practice. If she got out of this alive, Bonnie swore she was going to send Mrs. Forbes one hell of a thank-you basket.

"Come on," Kol grabbed her hand and dragged her out with him. "There's probably more of them."

Bonnie still had Kol's gun with her as they ran, hand-in-hand, around the warehouse. The place was made up of several floors that wrapped around an old, unused ground floor, which contained no furnishings save for a large generator in the middle. From what Bonnie could tell, they looked to be on level two or three.

Bonnie shrieked as she heard the sound of gunshots behind her. She looked back for a second to see one of them men limping out of Kol's loft, shooting at them.

"I thought you took their weapons," she shouted at him.

"I only took the ones I saw. You know the ones that were pointed right at me," Kol snapped back.

"Oh god, are we dead yet?"

"No." Kol turned a corner, taking Bonnie with him.

Bonnie tried to breathe through her nose as they sprinted down the stairway. Kol led her to the first floor and past an exit door. They passed through a long hallway with several doors. Kol finally stopped at one of the doors and escorted Bonnie through to a two-vehicle garage space where Kol's Audi was parked.

"This garage isn't electronic. It's like a storage unit - I have to open it by hand." He buzzed the car open with the alarm and pushed the keys into her free hand. "Here, start the car for me."

Kol opened the passenger door for her. Bonnie stopped him before he made his way to the garage door. "Wait, you're hurt." She softly placed a hand near his shoulder where blood had began to seep through the shirt. A bullet had grazed straight past his right shoulder.

"Just a scrape." As much as Kol loved the touch of concern she had for him, now was not the time. "There's a flask in my glove compartment. Take it out for me, will you?"

Kol ran to the garage door as Bonnie hopped into the car. She turned on the engine and browsed through the glove compartment. Not only did she find the requested flask. It was wedged in with stacks of crumpled papers. While pulling the flask out, she also caught sight of a passport and a small stack of drivers licences, tied together with a rubber band. The I.D.s all had Kol's picture, but each one had a different name, a different state. This was just what she needed to nail him.

Bonnie's eyes quickly shot up, looking past the windshield, to make sure Kol was still opening the door. She shoved all of the I.D.s under her sweater, making sure it was tucked securely into her bra-strap. The sweater was bulky enough to drown her form, so there wasn't a chance that Kol would notice.

Shutting the glove compartment, Bonnie looked down at the flask in her hand. It was sterling silver and had some writing engraved on it - _To my baby brother, Always & Forever - Nik_

Kol jumped into the driver's seat. He caught Bonnie staring at the flask.

She gazed up at him with a raised brow. "Is this the same brother who hired thugs to chase you down?" She asked, holding up the flask.

"My family has very unconventional ways of expressing their love," Kol explained. He ripped the sleeve of his shirt and opened the flask, pouring the contents on his wound.

He hissed a little as he felt the sting of Vodka on the wound. Sucking in a deep breath, Kol hit the gas, drove out the garage and into the night.

Bonnie tried to put on her seat belt as Kol drove like a mad man down the path leading to a highway. She looked out at the scenery. They were away from the city, in some sort of old industrial area, with tall, abandoned warehouses that stood by the train-tracks.

Kol made a rough turn that almost pushed Bonnie's face into the side window. "Are we dead yet?" She groaned.

"No." Kol glanced at his rear-view mirror. Sure enough, a hybrid car was on their tail. It appeared that the two goons he and Bonnie had taken out had brought reinforcements. One of the men popped his upper body outside the car window and began to shoot at them, aiming for their tires.

Bonnie screamed once more at the sound of more gunshots. "Are we dead yet?" She asked again, ducking down further into her seat.

"Bonnie, when we die, I promise, I'll let you know," Kol affirmed as he hiked up his speed.

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**11:45 p.m.**

"What is it now Elijah?" Klaus groused as he strode into his brother's apartment. Between work, Kol's threats and Caroline's strange behavior, Klaus had enough on his plate to deal with. Yet he somehow had to make time for one of Elijah's impromptu, pesky family meetings. God forbid, he miss another one of those, Klaus rolled his eyes.

"It's Sunday night, shouldn't you be re-reading the Constitution and checking for grammatical errors or some similar coma-inducing activity," Klaus snarked as he made his way past the foyer and into the living room. Elijah stood proudly by the fireplace, looking as pretentious as ever, while Rebekah glared at him from her spot on the sofa. None of this was surprising. It was the unexpected guest who sat on the lounge chair that caught Klaus off guard.

"Big brother. So glad you could make it to the kin-tervention," Kol said.

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Caroline bit her lip as she looked through the photos Lexi had printed out. They were profiles of a hand-full of Galen Vaughns that resided in the city, but none of them were a match with the face she saw earlier today. This was leading her nowhere, she groaned.

The clock on her nightstand struck midnight. Klaus had called earlier to let her know that he had to meet with Elijah and would be home late. She had yet to leave her apartment, but began to reconsider staying put. If she stayed at her old place, Klaus would know something was up and confront her about it. Caroline had been up since three this morning and didn't fancy getting into a row with him right now. It was probably best to head back to Klaus' penthouse now. At least that way she could at least feign sleep and avoid any further questioning from him when he got home.

She got off her bed and went downstairs to the living room where Stefan and Damon stood. Stefan had called his brother over awhile ago to tell Damon the truth about what had happened with their father and Atticus Shane all those years ago. Their words soon escalated into a shouting match and Caroline had taken it as her cue to hide away. She was relieved to find that they had both calmed down and were now silently brooding by the mini-bar.

"Hey." Stefan turned at the sound of her footsteps. "Anything?" He asked, gesturing towards the papers in her hands.

"No. They're not him."

Stefan simply nodded. He had expected as much. "I'll let Lexi know and we can figure out what to do going forward."

"OK, I'm going to Klaus' place. You can stay here for the night if you want," Caroline said. "Damon! Tell me you did not open my bottle of Romanee-Conti DRC 1990."

"Fine, I won't tell you," Damon rolled his eyes and took another sip of the opulent wine.

"You imbecile!" Caroline shrieked, snatching the goblet from his hands. "It took me and Katherine ages to get our hands on it." A few droplets of wine spilled over to the floor. One glance at the stain and Caroline was seconds away from going hysterical. But before she could verbally explode on Damon, a loud knock came from the door.

Damon quickly sprang away from the blonde and strode over to the door. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped as he took in the sight in front of him. "Where the hell have you been?!" He yelled, pulling his friend into the apartment. "You realize I could actually hug you right now."

Bonnie shook her head, tears forming at her eyes. She was torn between laughing and crying insanely. She settled for a little bit of both as she walked into Damon's arms.

**A/N -What'd you guys think? So, yeah, Klaroline's going to go through some problems - no marriage is perfect after all. Also, you'll find out more about what happened between Kol and Bonnie when he released her later.**

**Special thanks to people who have reviewed in the past! - BSLover1812, NikMik, CheleseaB95, klaroline4everlove, Lizzie, KevinH1997, romanticolors, guest, shesglory, recklessouls, Anna the Vampire Princess, WearRedTonight, Fallen Witch Angel, Gisabella de Salvatore, mscyanide, WeasleysGroupie, Sarah, Aadee, lil7miss7sarcastic, Jackiezn, Marina, guest2015, Missycole23, EyesLikeLiquidFire, JennaH,shiwii, guest.**


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